Being honest are fundamental requirements if you want to grow spiritually and follow your true destination of personal development. It's not simply about being honest with people. While that will make you a better person and a more accepted one it's more importantly about being honest with yourself.
Living your life honestly means that you've decided to live openly and to show your true self to others and that you can be relied upon to be trustworthy. On the other hand, dishonesty is all about shade and concealment and living your life in 'dark corners'. When you're dishonest, it means that you remain living in the dark and cannot grow spiritually.
Honesty produces trust-trust in ourselves and in all those around us. Trust in turn produces confidence which we all need to overcome life's problems and which also encourages us to take risks in order to achieve our goals.
You'll have no doubt you have heard expressions such as "what goes around, comes around" and "you get back, what you give out in life" and that's very true. If you don't live your lives honestly, you can be assured that the people you'll attract will turn out to be very similar to you and it's therefore unavoidable that one day you'11 be on the receiving end of someone's dishonest actions or words.
There may be situations where telling the whole truth causes you to bring a lot of pain on somebody else. For example, John may have told Paul that he can't go on a weekend fishing trip with him because he has a family commitment arranged that weekend. You know differently and that the real reason John isn't going is because he hates Paul. When Paul asks you if you know whether the reason is true, what do you say? Well, in situations like this, it's often better to be economical with the truth. You might say that you don't know why John can't go or that you think he has something on that weekend." Of course, this isn't telling the complete truth but you are sparing Paul's feelings on something that won't, after all, have strong influence on Paul's future.
小题1:If you want to grow spiritually, it is best for you to______.
| A．follow your destination |
| B．be true to yourself |
| C．plan your personal development |
| D．accept honest people as ends |
小题2:The passage tells us that if you choose to live a dishonest life, you will_____.
| A．suffer from dishonesty |
| B．become very attractive |
| C．influence honest people |
| D．have attractive friends |
小题3:The example in the last paragraph is used to prove that______.
| A．we should always tell the truth |
| B．John is not a trustworthy person |
| C．telling lies causes pain on someone else |
| D．sometimes we can't be completely honest |
小题4:What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．We should be economical with the truth. |
| B．People can gain from dishonesty. |
| C．Honesty helps you develop. |
| D．Trust produces confidence. |