Whom can you trust these days？ It is a question posed by David Halpern of Cambridge Univ

ersity, and the researchers at the Downing Street Strategy Unit who take an interest in "social capital". In intervals they go around asking people in assorted【M1】______ nations the question: "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted？" The results are fascinated. The conclusion that leaps from the【M2】______ figures and into sensational headlines are that social dislocation,【M3】______ religious decline, public scandals, family fragmentation and the fear of crime have made us more trusting. Comparative surveys【M4】______ over 40 years suggest that British trustfulness had halved: in the【M5】______ 1950s 60 per cent of us answered "yes, most people can be trusted", in the 1980s 44 per cent, today only 29 per cent. Trust levels also continue to fall in Ireland and the US—meanwhile, the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Dutch express tremendous confidence in one and anothers honesty: levels are actually rising.【M6】______ In Mexico and Japan the level of trust is also increasing, that is【M7】______ interesting if mild bewildering. And the Palme dOr(金棕榈奖)【M8】______ for mutual suspect goes to the Brazilians—with less than 3【M9】______ per cent replying "yes"—and the Turks with 6.5 per cent The French, apparently, never trusted each other and still dont. Nevertheless we【M10】______ become less Scandinavian and more French(or Turkish)every year.

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