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Listen and Respond

Task One Focusing on the Main Ideas

Choose the best answer to complete each of the following sentences according to the information contained in the listening passage. 1) When do people come into your life ―for a reason‖? A) When they know you well.

B) When you need them in life. C) When you can support their career.

D) When they are willing to listen to your troubles.

2) Who will end the friendship with the person that is in your life for a reason?

A) The person himself. B) You.

C) Neither you nor the person. D) Both you and the person.

3) What does a ―friend for a season‖ mean? A) Someone who is good at making you laugh. B) Someone who teaches you how to have fun.

C) Someone who will stay in your life for a short time. D) Someone who comes into your life only for fun.

4) What is a lifetime friend?

A) Someone who always helps you out of difficulties. B) Someone who understands you better than anyone else. C) Someone who has experienced hardships with you.

D) Someone who together with you makes up a single soul in two bodies.

5) What is the passage mainly about? A) Three different stages of friendship.

B) Three different types of friendship in our life. C) Three different ways of getting along with people.

D) Three different lessons on how to be good to your friends.

Task Two Zooming In on the Details

Listen to the passage again and fill in each of the blanks according to what you have heard.

1) People come into our life for a reason , for a season or for a lifetime .

2) When you figure out why people come into your life, you will know exactly what to do.

3) When someone is in your life for a reason, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly . They have come to help you out of a difficulty, or to provide you with guidance and support .

4) When people come into your life for a season, they may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh .

5) Lifetime friendships are based on trust and understanding between you and your friend. Lifetime friendships teach you lifetime lessons and you should learn to accept them.

Read and Explore

Task One Discovering the Main Ideas

1 Answer the following questions with the information contained in Text A.

1) Why do people tend to have a thin understanding of friendship?

It is because there is a lack of socially acknowledged criteria for what makes a person a friend.

2) What are the three kinds of friendship according to Aristotle?

They are friendship based on utility, friendship based on pleasure and friendship based on goodness.

3) What does Cicero emphasize in his definition of friendship?

He emphasizes the element of virtue in friendship.

4) What is meant by ―virtuous friends‖ according to the classical views?

Virtuous friends possess moral excellence and share a commitment to the good.

2 Text A can be divided into four parts with the paragraph number(s) of each part provided as follows. Write down the main idea of each part.

Part Paragraph(s) Main Idea

One 1 It’s necessary to review some classical views of friendship in order to acquire a better understanding of it.

Two 2–5 According to Aristotle, there are three kinds of friendship, which are respectively based on utility, pleasure and goodness. Friendship based on goodness is perfect and totally different from friendship based on utility or pleasure.

Three 6 According to Cicero, true friendship is only possible between good men. In such friendships and relationships, those who possess any superiority must regard themselves as equals of those who are less fortunate.

Four 7 Virtuous friends are bound by moral excellence, which involves a high level of development and expression of the altruistic emotions of sympathy, concern and care.

Task Two Reading Between the Lines

Read the following sentences carefully and discuss in pairs what the authors intend to say by the italicised parts.

1. In one setting, we may describe someone as a friend; in another, the label may seem less appropriate. (Para. 1)

Since society lacks socially accepted criteria for what friendship is, a person may be described as a ―friend‖ in one context but may not be suitably called so in another.

2. Friendship between the young is thought to be grounded on pleasure, because the lives of the young are regulated by their feelings, and their chief interests are in their own pleasure and the opportunity of the moment. (Para. 4)

It is believed that young people tend to regard pleasure as an essential element of friendship and thus base their friendship on pleasure.

3. Such friendships are rare because men of this kind are few and they need time and intimacy; for as the saying goes, true friends must go through trials and tribulations together. (Para. 5)

It is not easy to establish true friendships because there is only a small number of such good men in the world and it takes time and effort to develop such friendships. That is why true friendships are rare.

4. To perceive a friend, therefore, is in a manner to perceive oneself; and to know a friend is in a manner to know oneself. Each can be said to provide a mirror in which the other may see himself. (Para. 7)