Read and think:

Do you agree with the writer, if not, what will you describe a friend as?

A Good Friend

　　In kindergarten your idea of a good friend was the person who let you have the red crayon (蜡笔) when all that was left was the ugly black one.

　　In primary school your idea of a good friend was the person who went to the bathroom with you; who held your hand as you walked through the scary halls; who helped you stand up to the class bully; who shared their lunch with you when you forgot yours on the bus; who saved a seat on the back of the bus for you and who knew who you had a crush on and never understood why.

　　In secondary school your idea of a good friend was the person who let you copy their social studies homework; who went to that “cool” party with you, so you wouldn't wind up being the only fresher there; who did not let you lunch alone．

　　In pre-university your idea of a good friend was the person who gave you rides in their new car；convinced your parents that you shouldn't be grounded; comforted you when you broke up with Nick or Susan；found you a date to the prom or went to the prom with you (both without dates) ;helped you pick a university and assured you that you would get into that university; helped you deal with your parents who were having a hard time letting you go.

　　On the threshold (开始) of adulthood your idea of a good friend was the person who was there when you just couldn't deal with your parents; assured you that now you and Nick or you and Susan were back together, you could make it through anything; just silently hugged (拥抱) you as you looked through blurry eyes at 18 years of memories; and reassured you that you would make it in university as well as you had these past 18 years； and most importantly sent you off to university knowing you were loved．

　Now， your idea of a good friend is still the person who gives you the better of the two choices, holds your hand when you're scared, helps you fight off those who try to take advantage of you, thinks of you at times when you are not there, reminds you of what you have forgotten， helps you put the past behind you but understands when you need to hold on to it a little longer, stays with you so that you have confidence, goes out of their way to make lime for you, helps you clear up your mistakes, helps you deal with pressure from others, smiles for you when they are sad, helps you become a better person, and most importantly loves you! 

　Pass this furl on to those friends of the past, those of the future and those you have met along the way.

　Thank you for being a friend. No matter where we go or who we become, never forget who helped us get there. There's never a wrong time to pick up a phone or send a message telling your friends how much you miss them or how much you love them.

　　

　　

　　

   Editor’s notes: AWL is well known for its dictionaries and English language teaching materials． Some readers have written in to ask us for the latest information on high quality books on English, so here we introduce two texts that aim to improve spoken English fluency．
Let’s speak （Beginner)
By Bev Dusuya, Naoko Ozeki and Kevin Bergman
ISBN: 962001359X
Speak Up（Pre-Intermediate)
By Bev Kusuya, Nako Zeki
ISBN: 0583338050
“Teach the students about your culture and help them talk about their own．” How often are these worthy goals kept from being achieved by the limitations of your beginner level learners? Students at all levels want to talk about culture．
Topics include food, shopping, sports, fashion, the roles of men and women, health, music, and many more．
These are all chosen from surveys of over 15,000 students about their own interests in cross-cultural communication．
“Let’s Speak” and “Speak Up” share a special but excellent way that allows all students to take part in．
The series has questions which start thinking and then help collect opinions about personal topics． Conversation practice is provided by ready to use （现成的)models of basic exchanges on the topic． Also, the cultural information presented in the series comes in the form of interesting, relevant（相关的）facts and ideas from other countries through listening tasks and Culture Quiz exercises．
Team activities in books provide lively problem solving games to enable sharing and comparison of cultural values．
“Let’s Speak” is fit for entry level students of all ages． “Speak Up” provides for the needs of higher level beginners, offering the same careful listening and speaking help, but with slightly more open ended discussion．
For any information about AWL’s books, please get in touch with the following addresses:
Beijing Addison Wesley Longman Information Center
Room 2306, FLTRP Beijing
19 Xi San Huan Beilu, Beijing 100081
Tel: （010)68917488 （010) 68917788
Fax: （010) 68917499E-mail: zrh@public．bat．net．cn
【小题1】In the sentence “Teach the students about your culture and help them talk about their own”, “your culture” here means the culture of           ．

A．the English native speakers	B．the English learners
C．the readers of the two books	D．the readers of the newspaper

【小题2】Which of the following are mentioned about the two books in the passage above?
a．publisher       b．titles          c．content         d．writers 
e．prices          f．pages           g．book number

A．a,b,d,f

B．a,c,d,g

C．b,c,d,e

D．b,c,e,f

【小题3】The two books have in common everything EXCEPT         ．
A．the same interesting topics
B．the same level of learners
C．proper ways to excite the learners to talk
【小题4】The passage above is probably taken from the            section in a newspaper．

A．EDUCATION	B．NEWS
C．ENTERTAINMENT	D．BOOKSHELF