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Six Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

com.

Hello, this is six minute English from BBC learning English. I'm Neil and I'm Rob.

As well as bringing the world to a halt the coronavirus epidemic has led to an increase in misinformation lies and conspiracy theories on the internet.

In an era of fake news, where even the President of the United States has accused of spreading misinformation,

could it be that we are living through a crisis in trust?

What is trust? And who should we place our trust in?

These are some of the questions we'll be

be discussing in this program.

And we'll be hearing from a philosopher who believes the problem is not

about trust itself, but about trustworthiness, the ability to be trusted as being honest and reliable.

And as always, we'll be learning some related vocabulary along the way.

Of course, telling lies and lacking trustworthiness is nothing new

just think of the Trojan horse used to trip the ancient Greeks.

More recently the American financier Bernie Madoff became infamous as the biggest swindler in history.

In 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his part in the Ponzi scam, but how much did he defraud from investors? That's my quiz question.

Was it A, 6.5 million dollars, B, 65 million dollars or C, $65 billion.

I'll say B, $65 million.

Okay, Rob, we'll come back to that later. Generally speaking, trust can be described as a judgment that someone can be believed and relied upon. When we trust each other, it makes life life easier quicker and friendlier.

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