Reading Comprehension B1

Although we've been living in different countries for a long time, I know I should have made more of an effort to stay in touch with Amina because we always got on well together, even though we're quite different people. For instance, I'm much more ambitious than her and have no plans to start a family, whereas she already has two children. It's quite a contrast in lifestyle, and although it's great that we're both content with our own lives - and we've enjoyed catching up with each other's news - I don't really know whether in the future we'll have enough in common to keep the relationship going.

The first thing that struck me was that Natalia still looked much the same as she had ten years earlier, unlike some other people in their late twenties - especially those who have had serious personal issues to deal with during that time. She's also still very keen on sports, which I'm not, but she remains as sociable as she ever was and I suppose we're quite alike in that respect. In fact, she was one of the first people I thought of when the idea of contacting my old classmates occurred to me, and it's great you can do that online so easily. Otherwise you could lose touch with them forever.

Back in our school days I always liked Megan, but she was never keen on studying so I sort of took it for granted that she would end up doing a job that didn't require qualifications. Now it turns out she went on to do really well academically and for two years was a Philosophy lecturer at a top university. The other mistake I made was being rather cautious about responding when she first got in touch with me online last autumn, when in fact as soon as we saw each other on the screen we started chatting again as if that ten-year gap had never existed. I think we both quickly realised that we wouldn't ever let anything like that happen again.