兔子啦，还有小狗小猫啦，都曾被英国人当作他们不想去上班或学生没有完成作业的借口。不过你可是没有任何理由不来读一读这篇文章啊！

 

Have you ever taken a sickie? If so, what did you say to your boss? It seems many people in the UK like to blame their pets for their absence. 

 

One person said they couldn't come to work because their rabbit was missing. Perhaps that was a white lie; this next one though sounds more like a porky.

 

A worker said that he couldn't come to work because he had to take his dog to the vet¹. This might seem reasonable - apart from the fact that the man told his boss his dog was dead as a previous excuse for skiving off.

 

If you've ever worked as a teacher, you'll know that children can be very creative when it comes to excuses for not doing their homework.

 

Once again, it's popular to blame pets. According to a BBC survey, almost 10 percent of excuses involve pets eating the assignment. "The dog ate my homework" is a legendary² excuse - no one is sure if a student has ever really used it.

 

But it's not just workplaces and schools which attract fibbers. People caught claiming welfare benefits illegally have also tried to con³ the authorities. A husband whose wife was working while also on the dole⁴ said that he didn't know she had a job because he was always in the garden shed during working hours. 

 

There are many more ridiculous excuses people have made for not doing the things they were supposed to do. But there isn't enough room on this page to fit them all. And besides, I can't carry on because… the cat's eaten my keyboard. And what about you: what's your excuse?

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