Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 188. The idiom today is to cook
the books. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone is cooking the
books, he or she is falsifying financial records. All right. So if they falsify them, they
put down fake numbers or they fudge the numbers. As like what we might say. So
they're falsifying the records. They're cooking the books. Let's continue. The
origin of this phrase comes from the idea that 'cook' at one time, you know used
to be in the past at one time used to mean to transform something. Which makes
more sense. Like you're transforming the numbers to make them look like something
they are really not. So that's where it came from to cook the books other than that
you know people used to wonder. Well , why do they say cook the books ? I mean are
they, they're not actually putting it into boiling water. Why, why cook the
books ? Okay. Anyway, let's continue here. Let's look at the first example. That
company cooked its books. So they could have a positive financial quarterly
report in order to help the stock price to rise. Yes. Some, sometimes they might do
this. You know, they're not supposed to do it. Maybe they can get away with doing it.
Maybe not. Maybe they may get caught. But sometimes we say they might cook the
books or maybe they have two sets of books. The real books and the fake books.
Okay. Anyway, let's look at number two. Don't believe these GDP numbers. The
government is cooking the books. Yes sometimes you hear somebody say that. If
they're really questionable about the government's numbers, especially when a
lot of numbers don't seem to match or make sense. They say well , they must just
be cooking the books. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you
for your time. Bye-bye.