The Tea Time Hoax

Jerry Lewis, my dear students, is not a well-known teacher, but a famous actor. And we would like to travel to Nepal with you, but the news published by La Jueya last week was not true.

It was just a hoax, and its purpose was to celebrate April Fools' Day.

We use the word to refer to false news written in order to trick people. For example, somebody may send you an email saying that a certain program or webpage contains a virus, even knowing this is false. If you read the message, you will stop using the application or opening the webpage: you will have been hoaxed.

The term is loosely related to urban legends, which people pass on believing they are true, while nobody can find any evidence that they are. Among the most famous urban legends are these:

.-New York's sewage system is full of crocodiles which people bought when they were young and discard through the toilets when they start growing.
.-There's the ghost of a girl who stops your car at a bend of the road and tries to warn you to drive carefully (there are many versions of this particular legend).

Do you know any others? You can post them as a comment for everyone to read.

April Fools' Day

Today is the first of April. On this day, it is traditional for people in English-speaking countries to "fool" others in a funny way (you know you have been fooled when you hear "Gotcha!!!" behind your back).

Our school's English Department is no exception, so we have played a trick on you. Can't you guess what it was? You will know all about it next Monday.

Meanwhile, you can check out these links with information about the history of this peculiar tradition:

Origins

A Fools' Day vocabulary exercise

Some quotes about fools:

• It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and leave no doubt. --Mark Twain
• However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him. -- Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
• [Politicians] never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge. -- Thomas Reed
• He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks. -- François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
• The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer
• Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom. -- Elizabeth Gaskell
• Looking foolish does the spirit good. -- John Updike
• Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. -- Mark Twain
• A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. -- William Blake
• A fool must now and then be right by chance. -- Cowper
• It is better to be a fool than to be dead. -- Stevenson
• The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. -- Mark Twain

April's Fools' Day is similar to our Día de los inocentes. I'd like to read any joke or trick they played on you -or you played on someone else- that you may want to post as a comment (like when they told me I had won a beauty contest !!!)