Text a. My friend

1. Read, translate the text.

Friends are very important in our life. I think one cannot live without friends. The most important thing for being good friends, to my mind, is to be ready to help one another in any situation, to support one another and to solve all the problems together. Friends may have different interests and hobbies, likes and dislikes. They say that the friend in need is a friend indeed.

My name is Elena. I have a very good friend. Her name is Natasha. I think she is a pretty girl. She has expressive, big blue eyes, a snub nose and wavy dark hair. She has a good sense of humour and is pleasant to deal with. We have much in common and never quarrel, because there is no reason for it. We have common ideas, opinions and we discuss different problems together. We have been being friends for a long time. We trust each other and have some personal secrets. I can tell her about my troubles and I am sure that Natasha would help me and give me a piece of good advice. Natasha is an intelligent, sociable and open-minded person. She is always friendly and in good mood. She has a deep and genuine interest in people. We often spend our free time together. It is not very easy now, because both of us are very busy - we are students of different colleges and have a lot of work to do. My friend is going to become a nurse.

As for me, I study at the Moscow Art and Pedagogical College of Technologies and Design. I’ll become a cloths designer. Our future professions are different and the subjects we have to study are different too, but we like to work together and to help one another in our study. When we have some free time, we go for walks, read and discuss books, watch films, go to discos or play computer games. Playing computer games is our hobby. Both of us are fond of sport and go in for swimming and tennis. We often go to the swimming pool or to the tennis court together. I love my friend very much. I think she is a true friend. Our friendship is very dear to me and I try to do my best to be a good friend. I’m happy to have such a good friend as Natasha.

2. Look the text through and say:

What does Elena think of friendship? What does she say about her friend, about herself?

3. Write an essay about your best friend, using the following plan:

His/her name, age.

His/her appearance, character traits.

His/her (future) profession

Your common interests, hobbies.

Text b. A True friend

Socrates "A part of you has grown in me. And so you see, it's you and me together forever and never apart, maybe in distance, but never in heart."

1. Read, translate the text.

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day one fellow met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend? "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test.". "Triple filter?" "That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" "No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..." "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" "No, on the contrary...". "So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" "No, not really." "Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

Lesson: Well we can always participate in loose talks to curb our boredom. But when it comes to youк friends it’s not worth it. Always avoid talking behind the back about your near and dear friends.