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For the first time in my life I have been dumped by a friend. I should have seen it coming: the phone calls not returned, the excuses about 'not feeling very sociable right now.'...Yet the letter suggesting that the time had come for us to move on still came as a shock.
Tula and l had been firm friends for nearly ten years. We met at a singing workshop and took on each other immediately., But life changed for both of us: I got married and she responded to her single status by developing a fresh set of social networks, Then she took a long holiday, reviewed her life and decided what to keep and what to throw out. I n her letter she described our friendship as a "borderline’ case and suggested it should be time we "let each other go.I'm all for letting go of bad habits and boxes of old school exercise books. But surely close friends are not consumer goods to be discarded or replaced at the first hint of trouble? We are encouraged to believe that friends will be around forever. "You've got a friend, sang Carole King and ''ll be there for you' promised the theme tune of Friends. Such sentiments have sunk deep into the collective unconsciousness, or into mine, at least.
Certainly, the statistics indicate that we need friends more than ever, Government figures predict that the proportion of married men and women aged from 45 to 54 will fall by a quarter in the next two decades. A recent British survey found that two-thirds of eighteen to 35-year-olds in Britain turn to friends before family for help and advice. Yes, the argument goes, in a fast-moving, ever-changing world, friendship is our rock, the one thing we can truly rely on.
But in his book, The Philosophy of Friendship, Mark Vernon suggests otherwise. He cautions that we place unrealistic burdens on friendship, that it's unreasonable to expect friends to fulfill family members' roles. Worse still, he says friendships are becoming harder to maintain. "There are lots of obstacles in the way we live today. it's harder to put time and effort into knowing someone. Mobiles, email and so on, all these are secondary ways of communicating. There's not the depth.'
So, what did I do with Tula's letter? I re-read it many times, thinking over where I'd gone wrong. And then I wrote back, "Yes, you're right" l wrote, 'things have changed, But aren't we good enough friends to hang in there?' since then we have exchanged a couple of emails, A walk has been suggested. it would be easy not to make the effort and let this friendship go but, as Louisa May Alcott, author of little Women, said: 'Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary. I think she's right.
1.What can we learn about Tula and the writer from the first two paragraphs?
A.They became close friends ten years after their first meeting.
B.Nothing had happened to indicate their friendship might end.
C.Tula suggested the end of their friendship with a letter.
D.The writer took a long holiday after her marriage.
2."Such sentiments" in paragraph 3 most probably refer to .
A.trouble in making friends
B.dependence on close friends
C.reluctance to end a friendship
D.belief in permanent friendship
3.Which of the following statements is Mark Vernon most likely to agree with?
A.We expect too much of friendship.
B.More and more people are choosing to be single.
C.Friendship is what we can rely on in today's society.
D.Technology makes it easier for us to know others well.
4.Why does the writer quote Louisa May Alcott in the last paragraph?
A.To prove that efforts to maintain a friendship may not be worthwhile.
B.To justify what she has done with the friendship with Tula.
C.To emphasize the importance of Little Women in history.
D.To illustrate the charming things existing in friendship.
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