Unit 24
How many of your friends are real friends?
新知思想/自我提升
New Knowledge/Self-Development
BRAIN STORM
Share your ideas with your teacher and try to make sentences.
How do you make friends?
VOCABULARY
Repeat these sentences after your teacher.
1. it goes without saying (phr.) 不用說
It goes without saying that friendship is important.
不用說友誼很重要。
2. reciprocal (adj.) 相互的
Do you think that what they felt was reciprocal?
您認為他們的感受是對立的嗎？
3. mutual (adj.) 相互的
I like her too. The feeling is mutual.
我也喜歡她。感覺是相互的。
4. perceived (adj.) 感知到的
He perceived that she was a threat to the friendship.
他認為她是對友誼的威脅。
5. perception (n.) 看法、感覺
Broaden your perception, Mary.
瑪麗，開闊你的見解。
6. fluid (adj.) 靈活的、易變的
Our friendship is fluid. We forgive and adjust.
我們的友誼是不穩定的。我們原諒和調整。
7. acquaintances (n.) 熟人
Sheena and I are just acquaintances.
Sheena和我只是熟人。
Dialogue
Read the dialogue aloud with your teacher.
When you call someone a friend, it goes without saying that they also consider you a friend – you like them, they like you, it’s a reciprocal thing.
But a recent MIT study has found that this is probably only true about 50 percent of the time – only half of perceived friendships are actually mutual.
This perception gap is partly caused by our need to maintain a favorable self-image: “We like them; they must like us.”
The definition of friendship has also grown more fluid in this day and age with the rise of social media.
Are your Facebook and WeChat friends really your friends? Or are they acquaintances at best?
Are friendships bound to become more transactional and commoditized as one enters adulthood?
當你稱某人為朋友的時候，不用說他們也會把你當作朋友-你喜歡他們，他們喜歡你，這是一件互相的事情。
但是最近麻省理工學院的一項研究卻發現，這句話可能只有一半時候是正確的，也就是說只有一半所謂的友誼是雙向的。
這個觀念差異一大部分源於人們對維持良好自我形象的需求：“我們喜歡他們，他們一定也喜歡我們。”
隨著社交媒體的興起，友誼的定義現在已經越來越靈活、多變了。
你的Facebook好友和微信朋友真的是你的朋友嗎？還是他們至多只是熟人？
長大成人後，友誼就一定會變得更加交易性、商品化嗎？
It’s worth the time identifying who among the many people you encounter in life are your true friends.
Who makes time for you? Whose company enlivens, enriches and maybe even humbles you? Whom would you miss? Who would miss you?
While there is no easy or agreed upon definition, what friendships have in common is that they shape us and help us see the world in a new way.
有件事非常值得花時間做：區別你認識的人裡，哪些是你真正的朋友。
誰會為你騰出時間？誰的陪伴讓你快樂、充實、或許讓你變得謙卑？你會想念誰？誰又會想念你？
雖然友誼的定義很難界定，也眾說紛紜，友誼的共同點就在於它們塑造了我們、幫我們用新的視角來看待這個世界。
Grammar
The prefix “en-“
In today’s dialogue, we mentioned that a true friend will enliven and enrich your life. As you can clearly see, both of these words share the prefix “en-”. Originally, words using this prefix were of French origin, but over time English has adapted this prefix to mean something like “cause [someone/something] to be in the state named by the stem”. Of course that general meaning can’t apply perfectly to all examples, but it’s a good way to understand the make-up of the word. Let’s take a look at a few more examples:
•to encourage : to give someone courage
•to enslave : to make someone a slave, cause their slavery.
•to ensure : to make sure
•to endear : to make someone else like you
•to enable : to make something possible
DISCUSSION
Make a conversation with your teacher.
1.How many friends do you consider to be “real friends”? What makes you say they were real?
