What does “Friendship” mean to you?
A class of high school students in America was asked to write an essay on “Friendship». This was one of them written by Nicholas Roche, aged 15
“I have never in my life had a deep, lasting friendship with someone apart from my family. I have had the occasional good friend at school, but these called “friends” only wrote one or two letters to me after I moved away and they soon got tired of writing and gave up.
I’ve only had lasting friendships in my family, with my two brothers and my parents. I am not embarrassed having a relationship with my family and I hope I never will be. The perfect friend to me would be a boy about the same age who had some of the same interests, who liked unfashionable clothes or didn’t act cool. But I feel I don’t need any friends outside the family. I am already very happy.
If I want to be friends with some of he kids at school, I will have to change my personality, behaviour and clothes and not in a way I want to change them. The other students will ask me to do things that my parents may say I can’t and I won’t like them for this and it will take me away form my family.
A lot of people think I should be socializing with other children at school but they don’t know what socialization is doing to their families.”
I. COMPREHENSION
A- Are these sentences true or false? Justify.
1. Nicholas has preference for relationships outside the family.
2. Many people have the same opinion on friendship as Nicholas.
B- Answer these questions.
1. Does Nicholas consider his friends at school as real friends? Explain
2. Does Nicholas want to be like the other children at school? Justify.
3. List two qualities of good friend according to Nicholas.
4. What does “them” in the text refer to?
A class of high school students in America was asked to write an essay on “Friendship». This was one of them written by Nicholas Roche, aged 15
“I have never in my life had a deep, lasting friendship with someone apart from my family. I have had the occasional good friend at school, but these called “friends” only wrote one or two letters to me after I moved away and they soon got tired of writing and gave up.
I’ve only had lasting friendships in my family, with my two brothers and my parents. I am not embarrassed having a relationship with my family and I hope I never will be. The perfect friend to me would be a boy about the same age who had some of the same interests, who liked unfashionable clothes or didn’t act cool. But I feel I don’t need any friends outside the family. I am already very happy.
If I want to be friends with some of he kids at school, I will have to change my personality, behaviour and clothes and not in a way I want to change them. The other students will ask me to do things that my parents may say I can’t and I won’t like them for this and it will take me away form my family.
A lot of people think I should be socializing with other children at school but they don’t know what socialization is doing to their families.”
I. COMPREHENSION
A- Are these sentences true or false? Justify.
1. Nicholas has preference for relationships outside the family.
2. Many people have the same opinion on friendship as Nicholas.
B- Answer these questions.
1. Does Nicholas consider his friends at school as real friends? Explain
2. Does Nicholas want to be like the other children at school? Justify.
3. List two qualities of good friend according to Nicholas.
4. What does “them” in the text refer to?