Sally 跟同事Lisa和Mary议论办公室里关于Tom的传闻，说Tom 大搞婚外情，被老婆发现。Mary觉得，在办公室里议论这些不好，而且并不知道消息是否属实。Mary 问Lisa小时候玩没玩过一个叫“打电话的游戏”，玩的人坐成一圈，把一句话从第一个人用耳语的方式一直传下去，看传到最后一个人会是什么样子。Lisa 说，
L: Oh, yes! I’ve played that game! By the time you come to the end of the circle the original sentence has been completely mangled.
M: Right! “John hates chocolate cookies” gets transformed into something like, “James likes monkey pudding.”
S: Ok, I get your point. What you mean is that when information gets passed around, often times it becomes corrupted and incorrect, right?
M: Exactly. Also, I think there is a difference between office gossip and commenting on someone’s private life.
Lisa 记得，小时候确实玩过这个游戏。一圈人，等传到最后一个人，最开始那句话，已经彻底走样了。她在这里用到的一个动词mangle is spelled m-a-n-g-l-e, mangle, 意思是被肢解，破坏得不像样子。换句话说，一件事一传十，十传百，是很难保证准确无误的。Mary 还说，她觉得，大家议论办公室里发生的事情，跟讨论别人的私生活也是有差别的。
Mary: If the boss was hard on you today and you tell your colleagues about it, well….maybe that’s just part of office life. But Tom’s private life is no concern of ours.
L: But people have been gossiping since the dawn of time! It’s sort of a way for people to bond.
M: Yes, I understand that. But I worry about spreading personal attacks or revealing secrets about someone’s private life.
L: You might be right. For one thing, the person we’re talking about isn’t here to defend himself, and that’s not really fair. And like you mentioned, we don’t even know if the story is true.
Mary说，如果是老板对你过于严厉，if the boss was too hard on you. 你回来跟同事抱怨，这可能是办公室生活很正常的内容，但 Tom 的私生活 is no concern of ours. 完全不是我们应该关心的范畴。Lisa觉得很有道理，而且，被议论的对象现在不在现场，所以无法为自己做出辩解，而且大家也并不知道传闻是否属实。Sally 说，
S: Those are good points. Tom is actually a really nice guy. I’ve worked with him for five years and he’s always been a good friend.
L: For us, if Tom is a good co-worker that’s all that really matters.
S: All right….I’m not going to discuss this rumor any further. Let’s leave it alone.
L: Good idea.
M: I think we all hope Tom and his wife can work out any troubles they might be having. Let’s wish them the best.
Sally跟Tom共事过五年，觉得Tom是个很好的人。Lisa说，对我们来说，Tom只要是个好同事就足够了，其他都不重要。Sally保证，不再去议论Tom的事，Let’s leave it alone. 不要再去管这些流言蜚语。Mary 补充说，希望Tom夫妇两人能 work out any troubles they might be having. 妥善解决两人之间的问题。