【推荐1】There’re five factors which contribute to the spread of fake news: political gain; misreporting; going viral; financial gain; and “not letting the truth get in the way of a good story“.

    1     When the Titanic disaster happened, Telegrams stating that all the passengers from the Titanic had been rescued were reported as fact in newspapers, before the full extent of the tragedy came to light.

    2     In the early 20th century it took years rather than seconds but the principle was the same. People shared the photographs around, not checking the accuracy of them, either wanting to believe they were real, or just because they were a novelty.

It’s long been believed that the motto of Fleet Street was “never let the facts get in the way of a good story”, illustrated by a news story earlier in 2017 that Jeremy Corbyn had refused to bow his head to the Queen at the state opening of Parliament. Only later did it become known that protocol (礼节) doesn’t require bowing to the Queen in these situations.     3    

       The final two factors for a story to be fake news often go hand in hand: as a political tool, and a must to make profit.     4     Easier than you’d think. The websites with fake news can easily get astonishing hits, which then attracts advertisements and thus earn the website owners a nice profit.

The good news is that a number of new media organizations are trying to encourage us to think about where news comes from, who puts it out, and whether anyone can gain politically, financially or ideologically by it, before we share it around social media.     5    

【推荐3】There have been several incidents at some events in recent years where people died because of unsafe crowd conditions and stampedes. This may leave some people thinking there’s little you can do to survive a stampede. Indeed, it’s a frightening situation to be in and circumstances may make it impossible to escape.     1    .

Have a plan before you need one.

The key to staying safe in a crowd begins as soon as you arrive at the location     2    . It’s a piece of common-sense advice that you should apply not just at big events, but even when entering almost any room.

Go with the flow.

If there’s a sudden panic and crowds begin to push in a certain direction, you may fight back and push the opposite way.     3     . If you go against the flow, you increase your chances of getting tripped and knocked down.

Angle your way out.

    4    , it’s best to move in a diagonal (对角线的) direction. The goal is to get to the edge of the stampede where it’s less likely that you’ll end up stuck at a chokepoint, like a doorway.

Find somewhere to protect yourself.

Another potential way to handle the situation is to protect yourself and allow the crowd to move past you. Look for a solid structure to stand behind such as a pillar (柱子) or a wall. Other places to duck: behind a car or even a lamppost.

    5    .

In many stampede events, people die from asphyxiation (窒息). But a possible way to avoid this is to place your arms in front of you, almost in a boxer-like stance (站立姿势). That could give you some very valuable breathing room — literally.