Read the passage the do the tasks that follow. (Hãy đọc đoạn văn này và làm các bài tập theo sau.)
Everyone has a number of acquaintances, but no one has many friends, for true friendship is not common, and there are many people who seem to be incapable of it. For a friendship to be close and lasting, both the friends must have some very special qualities.
The first quality is unselfishness. A person who is concerned only with his own interests and feelings cannot be a true friend. Friendship is a two-sided affair; it lives by give-and-take, and no friendship can last lone which is all give on one side and all take on the other.
Constancy is the second quality. Some people do not seem to be constant. They take up an interest with enthusiasm, but they are soon tired of it and feel the attraction of some new object. Such changeable and uncertain people are incapable of a lifelong friendship.
Loyalty is the third quality. Two friends must be loyal to each other, and they must know each other so well that there can be no suspicions between them. We do not think much of people who readily believe rumours and gossip about their friends. Those who are easily influenced by rumours can never be good friends.
Trust is perhaps the fourth quality. There must be mutual trust between friends, so that each can feel safe when telling the other his or her secrets. There are people who cannot keep a secret, either of their own or of others’. Such people will never keep a friend long.
Lastly, there must be a perfect sympathy between friends - sympathy with each other’s aims, likes, joys, sorrows, pursuits and pleasures. Where such mutual sympathy does not exist, friendship is impossible.
Task 1. Fill each blank with a suitable word /phrase. (Điền vào mỗi chỗ trống bằng một từ/ cụm từ thích hợp.)
Acquaintance mutual give-and-take loyal to
incapable of unselfish friend suspicious
1. Good friendship should be based on…………….understanding.
2.The children seem to be………..working quietly by themselves.
3. He is a(n)………..man. He always helps people without thinking of his own benefit.
4. A(n) …………is a person one simply knows, and a(n)………….is a person with whom one has a deeper relationship.
5. You can't always insist on your own way - there has to be some…………..
6. Despite many changes in his life, he remained …………his working principles.
7. He started to get………….when she told him that she had been to Britain for many times.
Task 2. Which of the choices A, B, C or D most adequately sums up the ideas of the whole passage? (Lựa chọn nào trong A, B, C hoặc D tóm tắt thích hợp nhất các ý tưởng của đoạn văn.)
A. A friend in need is a friend indeed
B. Conditions of true friendship
C. Features of a good friend
D. Friends and acquaintances
