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Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/If a number of passersby in the street were to answer the question whether lying is immoral or not, the overwhelming majority of them would probably answer in the affirmative. It appears, however, that in everyday life lying is so prevalent that in order to come to terms with it people are quick to justify certain kinds of lies. It is often heard then that, naturally, lying is wrong in principle but life creates such unconceivable situations that the whole moral code has to be reversed to judge them. Lies told to contribute to a good atmosphere at work, to spare suffering or just to survive in the world are thought to be understandable. On the other hand, home truths told in a delicate way could perhaps do much more good than harm and would definitely spare moral dilemmas.