Unit 5

The Tapestry of Friendship

1. Text One

2. Text Two

3. Oral Activity

4. Post-reading Activity

Text One

• 1. Pre-reading Questions

• 2. Background Information

• 3.Language Study

• 4. Analysis of the Structure

Pre-reading Questions

• 1. Do you keep in touch with your childhood friends?

• 2. What do you need friends for?

• 3. How do you define “friends”?

• 4. What do you expect of friendship?

• 5. What is needed to make friendship grow, blossom and last?

Proverbs on Friendship• A friend is a present which you give yourself.

朋友是你送给自己的一份礼物。—— R.L.Stevenson

• A man dies often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by new contacts, new friends. -----Bacon一个人每逢失去一个朋友就等于经历一次死亡。但是取得新联系，结识新朋友却又使我们获得了新的生命。 ---- 培根

• In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. 在顺境中，朋友结识了我们；在逆境中，我们了解了朋友。—— C.Collins

Background Information• tapestry:[C] something resembling a rich

ly and complexly designed cloth 织锦 , 挂毯

• 1.About the text: • This text is taken from Close to Home, which

was published by the Boston Globe Newspaper Company/Washington Post Writers Group in 1979.

About the author: • Newspaper columnist Ellen Goo

dman has been with The Boston Globe since 1967. Born on April 11, 1941, in Newton MA, Goodman graduated from Radcliffe College in 1963. She began her career at Newsweek, where she worked as a researcher at a time when very few women became writers. In 1965, she landed a job as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press and two years later, she returned to Boston, where she began writing her column for The Boston Globe.

About the author:• In 1980, Goodman received the Pulitzer Prize for Dist

inguished Commentary. Among other awards she has won are the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award. The National Women's Political Caucus gave her the President's Award, and the Women's Research and Education Institute presented her with their American Woman Award. Goodman spent 1973-1974 at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow. She has also worked as a radio and television commentator and taught journalism at Stanford University as the first Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Professional Journalism.

About the author:• Goodman wrote the book Turning Points, abou

t the effect of the changing roles of women on the family, and she is co-author with Patricia O’Brien of I Know Just What You Mean: The Power of Friendship in Women’s Lives. In addition, five collections of her columns have been published: Close to Home, At Large, Keeping in Touch, Making Sense, and Value Judgments.

• She is married to Bob Levey, a fellow journalist on The Boston Globe.

Bibliography:• Turning Points (1979) • Close to Home (1979) • At Large (1981) • Keeping in Touch (1985) • Making Sense (1989) • Value Judgments (1993) • Paper Trail (2004)

• Co-author, with Patricia O'Brien:• I Know Just What You Mean : The Power of Fri

endship in Women's Lives (2000)

Text Organization:Parts Paragraphs Main Ideas

11-2 the Prelude

the author reveals what kind of film the woman had just seen.

23-6 the

Introduction

the author advances the double standard of friendship on the basis of the personally observed shift of focus of cinema lens.

3 7-18 the Body

the distinctions of the two types of friendship are detailed.

419 the

Conclusion

It summarizes the fundamental difference between the male companionship and the female friendship.

Language study(paragraph 1&2-1)• In this part the author reveals what kind of film the woman had

just seen and what attitude she had to it.

• Questions:

• 1) What kind of film did the woman see?

• It was a movie that portrayed all aspects of the friendship between two women: its fragility, its resiliency and its connecting function. It was quite an ordinary film, without thrilling scenes like the long-time car chase or the fierce gunfight. The end was of no great significance either.

• 2) What did she think of it?

• The movie was gentle and moving to the woman, because, as the following paragraphs show, with the other two movies it brought about a new definition of friendship that stood against traditional view of friendship.

Language study(paragraph 1&2-2)

• 1. It was, in many ways, a slight movie. – Pp. In many aspects it was a simple, ordinary movie.

• slight: of small importance or consideration; trifling:– slight matters. 微不足道小事

• 2. big-budget chase scene• budget: the amount of money needed or available for

a particular purpose.• chase: [U] the act of pursuing someone or something.

– Pp. a car-chase scene that costs a lot of money

• 3. shoot-out: a decisive gun battle.

Language study(paragraph 1&2-3)• 4. cosmic : • 1) relating to the universe

– E.g. Some people believe that what happens in their lives is influenced by cosmic forces.

• 2) very great – E.g. This earthquake was a disaster of cosmic scale.

• 5. Claudia Weill: is best known for her film Girlfriends(1978), which chronicles the struggle of a young girl to become a professional photographer and maintain a friendship with a female pal. Prior to making this popular film, Weill spent ten years as a camerawoman and documentarist.

Girlfriends• It is a believable relationship

story of a young Jewish woman who is trying to make it on her own, coping with work, romance and friendship at the same time and has to accept the marriage of her best friend and roommate. It seemed almost revolutionary in 1978 when it was first released. It is a small movie that made a big splash with its focus on women's’ interior lives.

Language study(paragraph 1&2-4)• 6. affecting: adj. inspiring strong emotion: mov

ing.– E.g. Departure is an affecting scene.

• 7. Slowly, it panned across the tapestry of friendship ... – Pp. Step by step it gave an all-sided view of the co

mplex structure of friendship ...

• pan: vt/i. swing (a video or film camera) to follow an object to have an all-round view of it 摇动（镜头）拍全景 .

Language study(paragraph 1&2-5)

• 8. fragility: [U] (of an object) being easily broken or damaged.– E.g. Older drivers are more likely to be seriously in

jured because of the fragility of their bones.

• Adj. fragile– E.g. The thin glass is fragile.– I'm feeling rather fragile after all that beer last night.– fragile happiness

Language study(paragraph 1&2-6)• 9. resiliency/e: [U] the ability to recover readil

y– E.g. Do your muscles have the strength and resilien

ce that they should have?

• Adj. resilient: are able to recover easily and quickly from unpleasant or damaging events.– E.g. Rubber is more resilient than wood.– The Japanese stock market was resilient.

• 10. tissue: network; web– E.g. Her whole story was a tissue of lies. 她的整个

故事是一套谎言。– The text is a tissue of mocking echoes 这本书充满

了一连串讽刺性的模仿

Language study(paragraph 3-6-1)• This part describes the woman's observation of

the shift of focus of the cinema and advances the argument for the distinction between the two types of friendship: that between men and that between women.

• The following questions may help students to better understand this part:

• 1) Why does the author list the movies the woman had seen?

• Because the three movies share the same theme: the friendship between women.

Language study(paragraph 3-6-2)• 2. drastically: extremely and radically• 3. buddy: [C] a close friend

– E.g. He and I were buddies at school. 他和我在学校是好朋友。

• 4. flick:1) [C] a cinema film 电影• 2) a light, quick blow, jerk, or touch• 5. binge: If you go on a binge, you do too much of so

mething, such as drinking alcohol, eating, or spending money. 狂饮作乐

• 6. trendiness: being fashionable or up to date.• Adj. trendy: adj. very fashionable or up to date in style

or influence.– E.g. Loft apartments have become trendy for yuppies in Ma

nchester and Liverpool.

Language study(paragraph 3-6-3)

• 7. verite: a genre of film, television, and radio programmers emphasizing realism and naturalism.

• 始于 50 年代欧洲的一种电影制作风格。由让 · 卢什和社会学家莫兰为首的一批纪录电影工作者组成。他们主张用采访报道的形式拍摄纪录片，因此在拍摄过程中会出现一些由拍摄者人为诱导的情节发展，通常会表达出强烈、甚至激进的思想倾向。由于当时已出现轻便型无杂音同期录音的摄影机、微型话筒及高感光度胶片，使得创作人员有可能在任何条件下都自如地进行拍摄。尽管它流行的时间并不长，但其拍摄手法所产生的影响却不仅仅局限于纪录电影之中。

Language study(paragraph 3-6-4)• 8. across millions of miles of celluloid• in large numbers of movies • celluloid:1) a kind of plastic that cinema film u

sed to be made of. 赛璐珞，明胶一种由硝酸纤维和樟脑制成的无色、易燃材料，用以制作照相胶卷

• 2. motion-picture film:• There are no heroes but in celluloid.• 9. sidekick: [C] a person’s assistant or close ass

ociate, esp. one who has less authority than that person.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 虎豹小霸王 /神枪手与智多星

• 轻喜剧风格的西部片。 两位主人公都是反英雄类的典型，是令人愉快的个人主义者。特别是保罗 · 纽曼，自命不凡，永远乐观，从没杀过人，整天幻想着全世界的银行都已时机成熟待他轻取，实实的一个空想家。他与搭档神枪手罗伯特 · 雷福德爱着同一个女人，他们最擅长的就是在打抢或逃亡时还一路诙谐打趣，这与传统西部片里的歹徒绝对两样。 影片温情而饶有趣味，因纽曼和雷福德的表演而大放光芒。两位男星英俊迷人无疑是主要吸引力，但他们确实也得益于编剧威廉 ·高曼的机智诙谐和导演的超一流水准。该片最终获得奥斯卡最佳剧本、最佳摄影、最佳音响、最佳音乐项大奖。人们把它推为首席非主流西部片。

Language study(paragraph 3-6-5)• 10. atavistic: adj. relating to or characterized by

reversion to something ancient or ancestral.返祖性的

• [C] atavist: 呈现返祖现象的人 /

• [U] atavism:返祖性• 11. attachment: If you have an attachment to s

omeone or something, you are fond of them or loyal to them. ，如爱戴或忠诚；爱慕– E.g. As a teenager she formed a strong attachment

to one of her teachers...

Language study(paragraph 3-6-6)• 12. cull: choose from various sources.

– E.g. Here are a few facts and figures I've culled from the week's papers.

– It's a collection of fascinating stories culled from a lifetime of experience.

• 13. anthropology:[U] The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of human beings.

• 14. bonding: the formation of a close relationship especially through frequent or constant association.亲密关系的形成形成亲近的特别的人际关系，如配偶之间或朋友之间：

Ernest Hemingway• Ernest Hemingway is

one of the most famous American writers of the 20th century. He wrote novels and short stories about outdoorsmen, expatriates, soldiers and other men of action, and his plainspoken no-frills writing style became so famous that it was (and still is) frequently parodied.

• His dashing machismo was almost as famous as his writing: he lived in Paris, Cuba and Key West, fancied bullfighting and big game hunting, and served as a war correspondent in WWII and the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway sealed his own notoriety when he killed himself with a shotgun in 1961. His books include The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). His short novel The Old Man and the Sea (1952) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, and Hemingway was given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Language study(paragraph 3-6-7)• 15. only men ... inherited a primal capacity for friendship.

– Pp. only men ... were born with the instinctive capacity of making friends.

• primal: fundamental; essential– E.g. Money was a primal necessity to them.– Jealousy is a primal emotion.

• 16. pick on:If someone picks on you, they repeatedly criticize you unfairly or treat you unkindly. (informal)– E.g. Crippled Children may be teased and picked on at schoo

l.

• If someone picks on a particular person or thing, they choose them, for example for special attention or treatment. – E.g. When you have made up your mind, pick on a day when

you will not be under much stress...

Language study(paragraph 3-6-8)• 17. duality: is a situation in which two opposit

e ideas or feelings exist at the same time.• 18. mortal: seriously and may causing death.• 19. What led the woman to think that the cine

ma has drastically shifted its focus?• It was the fact that at present there were many

more movies about Female Friendship than movies about Male Buddiness. In contrast, in the past, the friendship between men had dominated the movies, giving a false impression that only men were capable of making friends.

Language study(paragraph 3-6-9)• 20. What was the shift?

• On the surface, it was a shift from the friendship between men to that between women; but in nature the shift highlighted a different type of friendship: Male Buddiness is subtly distinct from Female Friendship.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-1)• This part discusses in detail the distinctions

between the Male Buddiness and the Female Friendship. Generally speaking, the former is action-oriented while the latter is emotion-oriented That is, the Male Ruddiness is based on the need for co-operation in the activities that men are engaged in or in the adverse situations they are confronted with. In contrast, the Female Friendship borders on love, the need for mutual emotional support.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-2)

• Q: What's the fundamental difference between buddies and friends?

• Buddies are men's companions; they are connected by common activities. Friends, in the narrow sense in the text, are women's companions; they are associated by emotional attachment. Without shared activities, there would be no buddies for men; without love there would be no true friends for women.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-3)

• Q: What are the conditions of men becoming buddies and of women becoming friends?

• Men can become buddies only when they have weathered storms in commercial or athletic or military " wars" together, while women have to exchange at least three loathsome secrets before they consider themselves as friends.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-4)• 1.Sara Coleridge: was an English author and translator.

She was the fourth child and only daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: a leader of the romantic movement. With William Wordsworth he published Lyrical Ballads.

• 2. whilst:while.• 3. adversity: [U] difficulties; misfortune.

– E.g. Mr. Huang has been a good friend to me in adversity or in prosperity. 不管我处于逆境还是顺境 , 黄先生一直是我的好友。

• Adj. adverse: unfavourable – E.g. Adverse circumstances compelled him to close his busi

ness.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-5)• 4. palpably: noticeably• Adj. palpable: clear to the mind or plain to see.

– E.g. a palpable mistake

• 5. accessory: [C] a thing which can be added to something else in order to make it more useful or attractive. – E.g. She was charged with being an accessory to th

e embezzlement of funds.

• 6. “through the wars” together — corporate or athletic or military ?

• Pp. through the commercial athletic or military strives together

Language study(paragraph 7-18-6)• 7. They had to soldier together ...• Pp. They had to struggle together ... • 8. count: consider or be considered as

– E.g. I count myself fortunate to have had such a good education.

– I think we can count this meeting a great success.

– I didn't think his grudging remarks really counted as an apology.

• 9. loathsome: adj. causing hatred or disgust.– E.g. a loathsome smell

• loath: unwilling or reluctant;– E.g. I am loath to go on such short notice. 我不愿这么急急忙忙就走。

Language study(paragraph 7-18-7)• 10. confidence: [C] often confidences, a secret or priv

ate matter told to someone under a condition or trust. – E.g. A friend does not betray confidences. 朋友是不会泄露秘密的

• 11. hang together: to stand united; stick together; To constitute a coherent totality: – E.g. These diverse plot lines did not hang together.

• 12. hang on: to cling tightly to something.• 13.confess:Vt. admit or acknowledge something reluct

antly, typically because one feels slightly ashamed or embarrassed.

• [U]confession

Language study(paragraph 7-18-8)• 14. wretched with embarrassment: unhappy wit

h embarrassment • wretched: unhappy

– E.g. She had had a wretched life as a child.

• 15. moan: vi. 1) Make a long, low sound expressing physical or mental suffering.

• 2) To complain, lament, or grieve:– E.g. stop moaning; you really have nothing to com

plain about.

• 16. a chicken call: a cowardly, tentative call.• 17. made it better: reduced her unhappiness; m

ade her less unhappy

Language study(paragraph 7-18-9)

• 18. What is the point put forward in Paragraph 14?• What men want to have is their buddies' proof of their

close relationship by actions; they don't need words but actions. In contrast, women would accept their friends through verbal communications; they need words like "I love you," "Honey," and "Dear" to start and nourish their friendship.

• 19. What is the point of Paragraph 15?• Men do things to show their closeness but never

display their emotions by hugging each other.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-

10)• 20.What point does the example in Parag

raph 16 illustrate?• Even though men are emotionally dependent o

n each other, they never confess it.

• 21. Babbitt: A now-rare nickname derived from the Sinclair Lewis book of the same name; it can be loosely defined as an uncultured, “square”, typically middle-aged and middle-class businessman characterized by timidity and ignorance of their philistinism.市侩

Language study(paragraph 7-18-

11)• 22. grievance: [U] a feeling of resentment over somet

hing believed to be wrong or unfair.– E.g. to have a grievance against sb.抱怨某人

• grieve: vt. to cause to be sorrowful– E.g. She is still grieving for her dead husband.

• 23. claustrophobic:adj.(of a person) suffering from extreme fear of confined places. 引起幽闭恐惧的

• 24. The only relationship that gave meaning to the claustrophobic life of George Babbitt had been with Paul Riesling.– Pp. What made the claustrophobic life of George Babbitt m

eaningful had been his relationship with Paul Riesling; without his relationship with Paul Ries1 Babbitt would have found his claustrophobic life meaningless.

Language study(paragraph 7-18-

12)• 25. Why was the woman shocked by men's des

cription of friendship?

• Because men's standard of intimate friendship is so drastically different from women's that under such circumstances as described in Paragraph 17 women would not count each other as close friends at all.

• 26. chum: [C] a close friend(boys)

Language study(paragraph 7-18-

13)• 27. What is the point of Paragraph 18?

• For once women's version of friendship was replacing men's as the ideal.

• 28. trenchmate: a soldier who has shared warfare of battles with other soldiers.

• trench: a long narrow channel in the ground used by soldiers as a defensive position.

Language study(paragraph 19)• This part is the Conclusion of the text, which

restates the distinction between the two types of friendship. The teacher can ask the students to tell in what ways buddies and friends differ. Buddies are those you can do things together with in your lifetime, but friends are those with whom you can share roses and thorns in your life.

Text B

My Daughter, My Friend

Patricia Lorenz

Comprehension questions of Text II• 1.  Why did the mother and daughter choose

letter-writing as their form of communication?

• Because they both found that it was a very effective way to express their feelings to each other. Through note writing the daughter told her mother how she felt and what growing pains she had experienced as an adolescent and the mother told her daughter how she felt as a middle-aged woman. We can say that frequent exchange of feelings helped to bring them closer to each other.

Comprehension questions of Text II• 2.  Rewrite Paragraph 6 of this text by changing its

written style into a spoken one.• Mom, your letters make me feel great no matter

what kind of mood I’m in. Sometimes they even make me cry because they touch me so deeply. I’m really glad we have the kind of relationship that we do, even though we have our arguments. I guess that’s life with a teenager or with a 39-year-old!

• I love you. Mom!• What’s more, I think that it is much easier for

me to write my feelings down to you than trying to speak them out to you.

Comprehension questions of Text II• 3. Do you think this kind of thing can happen in

your family?• Here are a couple of hints for you discussion• 1) What is the usual way of communication between

members of your family, especially between a parent and a child?

• 2) Do you think your family climate is democratic?• 3) What will your mother or father do if you keep

writing notes to them rather than tell them what you want to do in an oral face-to-face interaction?

• 4) Do you think note writing between family members living under the same roof can lead to some undesirable consequence?

Post-reading ActivitiesText A:1.What is the rhetorical features of the text?

(keys) .

2. Translation practice

3. Language practice

4. Comprehension check

5. Writing

Rhetorical features of the text

• To show the differences between buddiness and friendship effectively, the author of the text coordinates sentences in various ways. Sometimes he uses conjunctions such as but, yet, while. And sometimes he simply puts two clauses together without using any conjunction at all.

Translation

Translate the following passage into English, using the words and phrases given in the brackets:

1. 你的批评近于粗暴。 (border on)2. 失业人员都应该得到政府的帮助。 (count

as)3. 总的来说，我对这项实验是相当满意的。(on the whole)

4. 一个人的外表会影响别人对他的看法。 (make a difference)

Translation

• 5) 广告倾向于把妇女描绘成非常传统的角色。 (portray)

• 6) 刚刚继承了一大笔遗产的孪生姐妹急不可耐地炫耀她们的珠宝首饰。 (show off)

• 7) 公众关注的中心再次转移到了城市环境的变化问题。 ( shift focus)

• 8) 相比之下，甚至最新式的飞机也显得笨拙和缓慢。 (in contrast)

Translation

Keys:1. Your remarks border on rudeness.2. Any unemployed person counts as

deserving government help.3. On the whole I am quite satisfied with

the experiment.4. A person's appearance makes a

difference in how others judge him.

Translation

Keys: 5. Advertising tends to portray women

in very traditional roles.6. Having inherited a considerable

wealth, the twin sisters were eager to show off their jewelry.

7. Public interest has once again shifted focus to the changes in the urban environment.

8. In contrast, even the most modern aircraft look clumsy and slow.

Translate the following passage into Chinese

• 如同在其他许多欧洲国家一样，在法国，朋友通常是相同性别的，友谊则基本上被认为是男人之间的关系。法国妇女嘲笑“女人不能成为朋友”这种说法，但她们有时也承认，对女人来说，朋友是“另一回事儿”。另外，许多法国人对男女之间是否可能存在友谊表示怀疑。在一个团体中还存在着这样一种关系，男女在一起工作了很长一段时间，他们之间的关系可能很密切，彼此忠诚，感觉亲切。他们可能互” copains”—这个词的英文意思是朋友，但却更接近“老铁”或“哥们”的含义。在法国人眼里这不是友谊，虽然这种团体中的两个成员很可能成为朋友。

Language Practice

Fill in the blank in each sentence with a word or phrase taken from the box in its appropriate form

soldier hang together pick on resiliencyshow off make a difference intimacy binge

Language Practice

• 1. At the critical moment of presidential election, the candidate urged his supporters to _________.

• 2. When you have made up your mind, ___________ a particular day when you will not be under much stress.

• 3. From the age of 52 onwards, General Jackson was not engaged in ________ at all.

• 4. He actually enjoys his newly-bought Jaguar and has decided to start ________ it ____.

hang together

pick on

soldiering

showing off

Language Practice

5. It is sad to see him go because it really ______ -__________to the way we conduct our daily affairs.

6. After the death of her only son, she went on occasional drinking ______.

7. Invitation to have dinner together is usually treated as a means of achieving _________ with another person in eastern culture.

8. In his research, professor Danes found the ______human beings to fight after they’ve been defeated.

will make

binges

intimacy

resiliency

a difference

Comprehension Check

1. What did the woman think of the movie Girlfriends?

Key: She thought it was a trivial movie, particularly with regard to its dull plot. At the same time she found it gentle and affecting on the ground that the movie described in detail the characteristics of the friendship between two women.

Comprehension Check2. Why did the woman say that the movie

camera had shifted its focus?Key: Because in the past men were exclusive images

for friendship in movies and they were presented as the only inheritor of a primitive capacity for friendship. Women, on the other hand, were portrayed choosing each other as companions just as they picked berries with little genuine friendship involved. Nowadays, the female friendship was becoming a fashionable theme of movies to take the place of the male friendship.

Comprehension Check3. What, according to the woman, is the subtle

distinction between the male and the female friendship?

Key: The male friendship, i. e. the bonding relationship between buddies, is established on the need for co-operation in the activities that men are engaged in or in the adverse situations they are confronted with. In other words, without the need to do things together, there would probably be no buddies at all. In contrast, the female friendship borders on love, the need for mutual emotional support. Women friends desire to be together as a result of spiritual attachment, regardless of whether they are involved in the same act or not.

Comprehension Check4. What does it show that men and women

establish their own friendship following different courses?

Key: Men become buddies only when they have undergone together competitive, adverse or dangerous situations like sports games and wars, but women are not real friends unless they have exchanged three loathsome secrets. This fact shows again that the male friend ship is activity-oriented while the female friendship is emotion-rooted.

Comprehension Check

5. What is the example in Paragraph 13 intended to do?Key: It is intended to illustrate that fema

le friends exchange their confidences.

Comprehension Check6.Why was the woman shocked at men’s description

of friendship?Key: Because what men described as friendship was

nothing of the kind at all to the woman. As she saw it, when two women see each other only once a year, they cannot count as best friends; when two women do not call each other long distance without a real reason, they don't count as intimates; and when two women don't have dinner together alone without the company of their spouses, they don't count as chums. But in such situations, men still describe them as bosom friends.

Oral study

• Discuss with your classmates what you will do in the following situations.

• 1. Someone in your class has just broken his or her leg in a traffic accident;

• 2. A friend of yours failed in the National College Entrance Examination;

• 3. A friend of yours has just fallen out of love;

• 4. A penniless stranger lost his or her way in your city.

Assignment --- Essay writing

Making friendsYou are required to write a 200-word

composition on topic.

In the first part of your composition, say something general about the necessity of having friends in one’s life.

In the second part, give your criteria of a good friend.

In the third part, give a conclusion.Sample

sample

• Making friends

• Every one needs friends. One relies on his friends for a lot of help during his lifetime; friends not only help through his difficulties and hardships but also share his joys. Without friends one feels lonely and solitary.

• Knowing how valuable friends are, we should be very careful in making friends. In order to make friends one should reach out first instead of just waiting. When one takes in initiative, he will find many people who have common goals, tastes and interest with his. And his circle of friends grows. If one is always concerned about other people and helps them rid out a storm, they will certainly become his good friends.

• One should be polite, prudent, sincere, honest, tolerant and considerate in making friends. But one should also keep the principle in his mind that a good friends is helpful while a bad friends would be harmful. One should break off with false friends, get to know new ones and never forget old ones.As distance test a horse’s strength, so does time reveal a person’s heart. A friend in need is a friend indeed. A long-term contact with someone will tell you who is a loyal friend and who is not. Life is a long way full of troubles, difficulties, hardships and pain. It is imperative to make good friends and keep the flowers of lasting friendship in full blossom.