新视野大学英语快速阅读第四册Unit5,passage3.docVIP

Types of Friends It is impossible to live in this world alone. We need other people for help, company, entertainment, and more. Our friends may be the most important of all. Friends are the people who show you kindness. They are the people out there on the front lines, defending you from being lonely or bored. They call you up, they listen to your complaints, they celebrate your successes and curse your misfortunes, and you do the same for them in return. They hold out through countless crises before concluding that the person you are dating is no good, and even then understand if you ignore their good counsel. They accompany you to your favorite movie or to something else you like. They feed your cat when you are out of town and pick you up from the airport when you get back. They come over to help you decide what to wear on a date, even if they don’t like the person you’re going to meet. Mostly, our friends can go into the following seven categories. Relative Friends What about family members? Most of them are people you just go stuck with, and though you love them, you may not have very much in common. But there is that rare exception, the relative friend. It is your cousin, you brother, maybe even your aunt. The two of you share the same views of the other family members. “Meg never should have divorced Martin. He was the best thing that ever happened to her.” You can confirm each other’s memories of things that happened a long time ago. “Don’t you remember when Uncle Hank and Daddy had that awful fight in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner?” “Grandma always hated Grandpa’s stamp collection; she probably left the windows open during the storm on purpose.” While so many family relationships are affected by guilt and obligation, a relationship with a relative friend is relatively worry-free. You don’t even have to hide your bad habits from this delightful person. When you slip out Aunt Joan’s back door for a cigarette, she is already there. Work Friends Then there