UNIT 62: FRIENDSHIP

Sheer proximity is perhaps the most decisive in determining who will become friends.
Our friends are likely to live nearby. Although it is said that absence makes the heart grow
fonder, it also causes friendships to fade. While relationships may be maintained in absentia
by correspondence, they usually have to be reinforced by periodic visits, or they dissolve.
Several researchers decided to investigate the effects of proximity on friendships. They chose
an apartment complex made up of two-story buildings with five apartments to a floor. People
moved into the project at random, so previous social attachments did not influence the results
of the study. In interviewing the residents of the apartment complex, the researchers found
that 44 percent said they were most friendly with their next-door neighbors, 22 percent saw
the people who lived two doors away the most often socially, and only 10 percent said that
their best friends lived as far away as down the hall. People were even less likely to be
friendly with those who lived upstairs or downstairs from them.

I. VOCABULARY
Sheer: pure, absolute Fond: loving, affectionate
Decisive: critical/important To maintain: to continue
Absence: Not being present Correspondence: mail, letters
To fade: to die away Resident: inhabitant
Attachment: connection Previous: earlier, before
To reinforce: To strengthen Absentia: not being
To dissolve: To weaken To determine: to decide, to find out
Proximity: closeness, nearness together
At random: without purpose To investigate: To examine

II. EXERCISE: Complete the sentences with a suitable form of the words defined
above.
1. It was going to be .......... pain to say it, but acid agony to hold it in.
2. Martin Puryear received a.......... award for sculpture that evokes the human struggle.
3. This sort of living of course .... the sense of isolation and loneliness
4. Before the summer .... it was time, once more, for us to get together.
5. Oxygen.......... more freely in cold water than in warav.
III. READING COMPREHENSION
1. The writer points out that friendships will not last long ...
a. if relationships are maintained by correspondence when people are not
together.
b. as long as they are not reinforced by periodic visits.
c. because nearness makes the heart grow fonder.
 d. unless people are close to each other.
e. when people get along well with each other.
2. The reason why investigators chose an apartment complex was to find out.........
a. whether closeness was a determining factor in friendships.
b. .how previous friendships affected, the relationships of people living together.
c. how friendly people were with their next door neighbors.
d. why people were less friendly with those who lived upstairs.
e. an effective interviewing method so that they could carry out their
investigator.
3. People living downstairs................
a. were most friendly with those living as far as down the corridor.
b. made only friends with their neighbors two doors away.
c. didn't find their next door neighbors friendly
d. were less friendly than those who lived upstairs.
e. were found to have almost no friends upstairs.