Read the text once and say which statements are true according to the text.
True
False
UNIT 9A
THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDSHIP 1. If you want to have a true friend, you must be one yourself. 2. All friendships last forever. 3. Let your friend behave according to his character. 4. Friends aren’t important for our success in life.
5. Friends are with us in moments of great happiness and unhappiness.
READING
За
во
д
за
уџ бе
ни ке
Friendship is a simple word that is very commonly used. Yet the depth and meaning of friendship certainly goes beyond the simple and the common. How can we define friendship? Is it devotion? A willingness to listen, understand and sympathize? A readiness to help? It includes all these qualities, and many more. A true friend is someone who understands you, who supports you in all you do, with whom you dare to be yourself, who knows all about you and likes you even so. If you want a true friend, you must learn how to be one yourself. Friendships are easily broken and that’s why you need to take good care of them. One great secret to having good relationships with other people is to understand that everyone has their faults; you should not look for a friend without faults – if we did, we would have none. Friendship is a two-way thing and if one person has lost interest in the friendship, then it is important to realize that either he/she needs some space and a little time, or that not all friendships are destined to work out. But don’t give up on someone easily. If it’s not fun for you anymore, try to find out why. As the proverbs go, “Be slow in choosing a friend, but slower in changing him” and “To find a friend one must close one eye - to keep him, two.” Whether they are casual friends, close friends or best friends, they are all important for our emotional and physical well-being and for our success at school, at work or in life generally. Why are friends so important? Because friends make us laugh when we feel like crying over a bad mistake; they make us feel loved when our boyfriends or girlfriends have broken up with us; and they give us the courage to do things and dream great dreams.
Glossary beyond – on the other side or outside a place devotion – great love, admiration for somebody or something destined – it will happen in the future 131
