1 Friendship

AIMS: Vocabulary related to leisure time Working with key words Answering multiple-choice
questions

Part 1: Vocabulary

麻藥膠
2
3
4

1a What do we need friends for? Match the words to the pictures. The first one
has been done
for you.

sharing
chatting

1 partying.....
2
having fun
 3
4
partying

1b Words ending in -ing are often at the beginning and at the

end of sentences.
Put the four words from exercise 1a in the correct sentences.

1 It is difficult for young children, but they have to learn that friendship is about

2
with friends is not something I do very often, but we always

3
celebrate our birthdays.

with friends is one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon. We have so

much to say that we often talk for hours.
4 Even on bad days, being with my best friend means

Watch Out!
Although some verbs have very similar meanings, they are not always interchangeable; it
depends on the context. For example, we spend time with friends, or more formally, we
socialize with them; more informally; we hang out with them. If we participate in a specific
activity, such as a game or a sport, play is correct e.g. playing chess.

8
Get Ready for IELTS: Reading
Unit 1

2
 Which nouns go with which verbs? Copy and complete the table. Then answer the questions
below.

chess basketball board games sports swimming tennis cards dancing weightlifting
skiing yoga shopping exercise karate poker puzzles kick boxing hiking

Play

chess
Go
Do

1 Which verb do you use most with activities ending in -ing?

2 Which verb do you use most for competitive games?
3 Which verb do you use most for other recreational activities?

3a Read about how these people have fun. Underline all the words that refer to
activities, and
circle the words that refer to places. Don't use a dictionary yet.
3b
Jack, 15:

I spend time with my family

most evenings. At the
weekend, I prefer to hang
out with my friends at the
park or in the playground
in the local woods. If it
rains, I like to go to see a film
with my friends.
Monica, 18:
I belong to a chess club
which meets twice a month,
and
once a year we go camping.
It's the highlight of my
summer! We stay in tents on
a lovely camp site and
have picnics and barbecues.
In the evenings, we organize
quizzes and play cards.
And we also play a lot of
chess, of course!
Find words in the texts above that match with these meanings.

2
3
4

6
Amrita, 12:

My older sisters spend a lot of time with their friends in

the local shopping centre, but
I'm not allowed to go out without
an adult yet. I can still chat to
my friends all the time though, by
phone, email or text
message.

a large place where you can buy many different things

.: a person who is no longer a child

.: a place where you can stay in a caravan or a tent

.: a meal in the open air

...: outdoor parties where people cook and eat food

: games in which you have to answer questions

 Friendship
9

1
Part 2: Skills development

Exam information | Multiple-choice questions

In the exam, there are different types of multiple-choice questions: you may be asked to
choose the correct answer to a question, or you may be given a choice of sentence endings and
asked to form a sentence that reflects the meaning of the text. The questions will be in the same
order as the information in the text.

Read the following text and then look at the questions on the next page.

The value of friendship

Recent research into the world of teenagers has

suggested that they value friendship above
everything else. Children aged between 12 and
15 were asked what was important to them. Their
answers included possessions such as money
and computer gadgets but also relationships
with people. The teenagers questioned said
that
friends were the most important to them, more
even than family, or boyfriends and girlfriends.

We wanted to find out more about the results of this

research so we asked our readers what they thought
 about the value of friendship. Here are some
examples of what they said. about their friends:

Ben, 15:

Every time I have a fight with my parents, I need some

time on my own. But after that,
the first thing I do is meet up
with my friends. After playing
football for a while, or
skateboarding, I usually feel
much happier again.
Rory,
13:

When I moved to a village in the

countryside, I thought that it
would be the end of my
friendships. But my old friends
have kept in touch and they come
and visit in the holidays. There's
a lake
nearby, so we often go sailing, water-skiing or windsurfing. And I have made some new friends here too, at
school, and since I joined the rugby club.

Carlos, 11:

Last year, I broke my arm on a

skiing holiday. Unfortunately, it
was my left arm and I am left-
handed. My school friends all
helped and copied their notes
for me.

It seems that our readers value their friendships very highly. From what they told us, they spend a lot
of time with their friends, just hanging out, or
sharing hobbies and interests. They seem to need
their friends for advice, help, chats, and for
having fun. Clearly, friends make each other
feel better. Looking at what our readers told us, the
results of the recent research are not really surprising.

10 Get Ready for IELTS: Reading

2
Unit 1
 Try to answer this question yourself first, before reading the explanation. Choose the best
answer from the letters a-d.

To teenagers, money is...

a not important.
C

b as important as computer gadgets.

as important as relationships with people. d less important than friendships.

3
The correct answer is d. The teenagers said that money, gadgets and relationships are all
important to them. However, the text also tells us that the teenagers value friendships most,
therefore money is less important.

Exam tip
Deciding which are the key, or most important, words in a question can help you to locate
the appropriate section of the text more quickly.

Look at the questions in Exercise 4, without reading the answer options. Underline the
question words (e.g. where, when, what) and the key words in each of the questions (1-3)
and sentence stems (4-5).

Now answer these multiple-choice questions. Choose the appropriate letter a, b, c or d.

4

i
Why are Ben, Rory and Carlos mentioned in the article?
 a They know why teenagers value
c
They read magazines.
friendship.
d
They are teenage boys.
b They gave information about
themselves.

ii
Which of the following best describes Ben?

c
He is happier than his friends.
d
He likes some sports.

!!!
a He often has fights.

b He likes being alone.

What do we know about the lake that Rory visits?

a
It is near the school.

b It is near his home.

c It is used by a lot of people who do water sports.
It is in a village.
d

iv Carlos mentions that he is left-handed because ...

it makes skiing harder.

b it makes it worse that he broke the
arm he uses most.
cit is an interesting fact about himself and he
was talking about his left arm.
d it is very unfortunate when you break your
left arm.
 The answers to the recent research and the answers from the readers...
V

a were surprising.
b were the same.
C
were similar.

d were both about sports.

Friendship
11
Part 3: Exam practice

Exam tip
If a question is difficult, don't spend too much time on it - go to the next one. Once you find
the next answer, you can go back in the text to find the answer to the previous question.
This is because, in this type of task, the questions are in the same order as the
information in the text.

Questions 1-6

i
Choose the appropriate letters a, b, c or d.

How many friends do the majority of people probably have?

a 30 real friends or fewer

b a minimum of 30 real friends

150 internet friends

d 400 internet friends over the course of their

lives

ii
It is difficult...

a
to believe the numbers about
friendship.
b to keep your friends happy.
iii Friendship means...

a different things to different people. b

dying for your friends if you need
to.

iv Sometimes people worry because...

V
a they think that they have too many
friends.

b they spend too much time with

friends.

Most of us...
to trust what you read on social networking sites.

d to give a definition of 'friendship'.

c helping each other until it is no longer

necessary.

d accepting people with different views.

c they think they are too old to make friends. d

there are no guidelines about friendship.

vi
a

are dissatisfied with our friends.

C

are frightened to talk to strangers.

 d need to be with others.
b build friendships late in life.

What does 'Strangers are friends we have not met yet' mean?

We have not met strangers before.

b Strangers are also our friends.
c We should not talk to strangers.

d Strangers may become our friends.

12
Get Ready for IELTS:
Reading
Unit 1

It is said that most people have no more than 30 friends at any given time, and 400 over the whole of their
lives. However, on social networking sites, most users have about 150 friends. If these numbers are correct,
then friendship means different things in different situations.

One of the reasons for having more online friends than real friends at a certain point in time is that online
friendships do not require much time and energy: it is easy to accept friendships and keep them forever.
Another possibility is that it is difficult to say 'no' when somebody asks us to be their friend online, even if we
feel we don't really know them. The fact that they ask us suggests that they do consider us a friend,
which is a nice feeling. Alternatively, they may be 'collectors' of online friends and just want to use
us to get a higher number of friends and appear to be popular.

Online friendships are quite easy, but in the real world decisions about friendships are harder to
make. There are no rules about friendship. There are no guidelines about how to make friends, how to keep
friendships going, and how to finish friendships if we want to move on. People have very different
opinions about this: some people would die for their friends and they value them more than family.
Others say that friends are temporary, only there to help each other until they are no longer
needed. If people with such different views become friends, this can lead to problems.

Because of these different definitions of friendship, it is easy to be unhappy about our friendships. We may want
them to be deeper or closer, or we may want to have more friends in our lives. Sometimes we simply do not
have the time to develop our friendships, or we fear we have left it too late in life to start. If we move to
another country or city, we have to find ways to make new friends again.

This dissatisfaction shows us how important friendships are for most of us. We should not think that it could be
too late to build friendships. We also need to understand that the need to be around other people is one that is
 shared by many. Therefore, we should not be too frightened about starting to talk to people who in the future
may become our friends: it is likely that they too would like to get closer to us. Remember what people say:
strangers are friends we have not met yet.

Progress
check

How many boxes can you tick? You should work towards being able to tick them
all.

Did you ...

remember to underline the key words in the questions and look for them in the text? read only
the parts of the text that you needed to?
remember that the questions are in the same order as the information in the text? first skip a
difficult question and then go back to it after you found the answer to the
next one?

base your answers on the text, not on your own opinion?

Friendship 13