April Fools’ Special: History’s Hoaxes(骗局)
April Fools’ Special: History’s Hoaxes(骗局)Internet HoaxesBan Dihydrogen Monoxide(一氧化二氢)Alabama Changes Value of PiCrop CirclesMoon Landing—a HoaxWhat is dihydrogen monoxide（）

A. A chemical.
B. Water.
C. Foam.
D. An industrial solvent and coolant.

Happy April Fools’ Day. To mark the occasion, National Geographic News has compiled a list of some of the more memorable hoaxes in recent history. They are the lies, darned(可恨的) lies, and whoppers() that have been perpetrated on the gullible(易受骗的) and unsuspecting to fulfill that age-old desire held by some to put joke on others.

The Internet has given birth to a proliferation(增殖) of hoaxes. E-mail inboxes are bombarded on an almost daily basis with messages warning of terrible computer viruses that cause users to delete benign(良性) chunks of data from their hard drives, or of credit card seams that entice the to give all their personal information, including passwords and bank account details, to identity thieves. Other e-mails give rise to wry(歪曲的) chuckles, which is where this list begins.

City officials in Aliso Viejo, California, were so concerned about the ers of dihydrogen monoxide that they scheduled a vote last month on whether to ban foam (泡沫) cups from city-sponsored s after they learned the chemical was used in foam-cup production.

Officials called off the vote after learning that dihydrogen monoxide is the scientific term for water.

"It’s embarrassing, " city manager David J. Norman told the Associated Press. "We had a paralegal(律师助手) who did bad research. "

Indeed, the paralegal had fallen victim to an official-looking web site touting the ers of dihydrogen monoxide. An e-mail originally authored in 1990 by Eric Lechner, then a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, claimed that dihydrogen monoxide "is used as an industrial solvent and coolant, and is used in the production of Styrofoam(聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料). "

Other ers pranksters(爱开玩笑的人) associated with the chemical included accelerated corrosion and rusting, severe bums, and death from inhalation.

Versions of the e-mail continue to circulate today, and several web sites, including that of the Coafition to Ban DHMO, warn, tongue-in-cheek, of water’s ers.