Gateway B 1, Unit 8. Reading and listening.

Listening

Listen to four people talking about friends and friendship. Match the speakers (1–4) with the comments.

Listening.

Listen again. Choose the correct alternatives to complete the notes.

Speaker 1

                     [Some of my friends, Hundreds of my frie] go on networking sites. They say they have lots of friends. In reality, most people                      [have a lot of, don’t have many real] friends.

Speaker 2

A good friend will                  [go out with you, help you] when you have problems. They are reliable and you can trust them.

Speaker 3

A good friend                 [won’t tell you, should tell you] the truth.

They should always tell you what they         [think., like.]

Speaker 4

I get on well with my best friend because I’m           [like, not like] her. I like to talk and she likes to listen!

Reading.

Read the article about friendship. Six sentences are missing from the article. Choose from the sentences A–F the one which fits each gap.

A Sometimes we even celebrate special occasions like birthdays with them instead of our families.

B When families started to live in different cities and even countries, friends became more important.

C I hadn’t heard people say that before, but it’s a very common phrase.

D The last type was the ‘soul mate’.

E If you want to learn a language, you can find people in different countries to practise with.

F Nowadays, we have bigger circles of friends but they are the same types that the Ancient Greeks talked about.

The family you choose yourself

Recently, I heard my sister say, ‘Friends are the family you choose yourself.’   [A, B, C, D, E, F] Since she said it, I’ve seen it written on T-shirts, notebooks and pencil cases. Why is this saying so popular? I think it’s because for many people, friends are as important as family. We often prefer to spend our time with our friends.   [A, B, C, D, E, F]

Friendship hasn’t changed a lot over time. Thousands of years ago, the Ancient Greeks thought that there were different types of friends. One was friends that are reliable and who will always help us. Another type was the friends who we have fun with – they might not be very reliable but we have a good time with them.

  [A, B, C, D, E, F] This is a special friend who we have a lot in common with and feel close to and who will probably be a friend for life.

  [A, B, C, D, E, F] We have friends who can help us with our homework. We have other friends who share the same interests as us and we have a good time with them. And we also have ‘soul mates’, who are often people we’ve grown up with. The difference is that our friendships change much faster.

In the past our families were the most important people in our lives but that changed.   [A, B, C, D, E, F] We might also have to move away from our close friends. Then we have to find new ones and lots of younger people are starting to use the Internet for that. There are websites where you can find someone who likes doing the same things as you. For example, if you like running, you can find a friend who will go running with you.   [A, B, C, D, E, F]

Changes in the way we live and the invention of modern technologies really do mean that friends are the family we choose ourselves.

Reading.

Read the article again and choose the best answers.

What does the writer say about friends in the first paragraph?

How many types of friends did the Ancient Greeks mention?

What can be the problem with friends who we have fun with?

How have friendships changed since ancient times?

Why are families less important to us now?

According to the article, why do some young people use the Internet?