7.1. Lesson 59: Be Skeptical, Never Cynical

People who learn English as a second language are universally appalled by the carelessness with which native speakers pronounce even the commonest words. True enough. English is a loose-fitting tongue. But far more significant than our embrace of a wide variation in pronunciation is our often reckless approach to meaning. Ask most people the difference between skepticism and cynicism, and they will tell you the two words are virtually synonymous or, at least, more alike than different.

They are, of course, quite wrong. Whereas cynics pass through life with a knee-jerk readiness to reject just about everything they see, hear, or even feel, skeptics take in all—but they do so critically, pondering and ...

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