Designed by Bartosz Michałowski for Pearson Longman
Adapted from the The Museum of Hoaxes (

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

)

Definitions from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

PHOTOCOPIABLE

2004 – ???

2003 – ???

2002 – Whistling Carrots ___

2001 – Titanic in England ___

2000 – Sox Diet ___

1999 – True Age of Celebrity ___

1998 – Burger King’s Innovation ___

1997 – Internet Spring Cleaning ___

1996 – Safer Beverages ___

1995 – Lenin in France? ___

1994 – Chewy Vodka Bars ___

1993 – Asterix Village Found _(X)_

1999 – United Europe ___

1994 Drunk Driving on the Net _(Z)_

(X)

“The expedition of

archaeologists, led by Professor
Barry Cunliffe (Oxford University)
and Dr. Patrick Galliou (the
Univesity of Brest), discovered a
2000-year-old settlement. It is
situated near Lannion (France),
almost precisely in the location
where Rene Goscinny, the cartoon’s
creator, had placed it. One of the
most important discoveries was a
collection of Iron Age menhirs
(standing stones), as well as Celtic
coins with the image of a wild boar.

(Independent)

(Z)

“A new bill concerning the

internet is going through Congress.
According to the bill, using the
network while drunk will be illegal.
Similarly, it will be illegal to discuss
sexual matters. The FBI will be
allowed to tap the phone line of any
person breaking the new regulations.
To receive further information
contact Lirpa Sloof, giving the
reference number of the bill —
040194.”

(PC Computing)

HOAX

n [C]

!

a false warning about something

dangerous

a bomb hoax
hoax calls (=telephone calls giving false

information) to the police

"

an attempt to make people believe

something that is not true

an elaborate hoax

I got an email about another computer
virus, but I'm pretty sure it's just a hoax.
To everybody's great relief, the bomb
scare turned out to be a hoax.

hoax [verb], hoaxer [noun, person]
to pull sb’s leg [informal] – to make a joke

by telling sb sth that is not actually true

to play a joke/trick on sb – to do sth to sb as

a joke or trick
I was trying to play a joke on you.

A

1957 – Spaghetti Bumper Crop

Panorama,

a BBC news show, broadcast a report

from Switzerland, where farmers were enjoying a
bumper spaghetti crop. It showed Swiss peasants
pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees.

The actual broadcast is available on the BBC’s website:

news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/70000/video/_70980_aprilfool_vi.ram

(You need the RealVideo player to see it.)