Could you explain “the truth lies somewhere in the middle”? My comments: When two people have an extremely different opinion on the same issue, you can be sure that neither party is totally right. Or wrong. What's most probable is that one party is right to a certain extent, while the other is correct on certain other points. In other words, "the truth is something in between" – you can't trust the words of one party. You'd better, instead, listen to both parties before finding a middle ground. When, for example, two people quarrel with each other, both persons tend to give their side of the story – you know, how kind, generous and righteous they're and how mean, wrong and evil the other person is – while denying anything the other person has to say. You, as an objective third party, and after listening to both parties, can readily reach a conclusion that neither person is absolutely right. Neither person is totally wrong, either. "The truth", instead, "is somewhere in the middle". More often than not, where real-life quarrels are concerned, the real truth is that neither person is so kind, generous and righteous. Obviously, neither person is above quarrelling. That much is certain. Otherwise there'd have been no quarrel between the two in the first place. Related stories: Give somebody a piece of your mind Go to Zhang Xin's column本文僅代表作者本人觀點,與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題,尊重他人,禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。 About the author:Zhang Xin has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column. |
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