大学英语口语话题修正版

Friendship

A person can have many friends but only one or two bosom friends. We regard some of our friends as our intimate friends, and others as ordinary friends. Those who are unfaithful to us can’t be called our friends.

A good friend is a real friend, and a real friend is a friend for life. A friend is, as it were, a second self. First, a friend is one whom you can count on, trust and talk to. Second, a friend is someone who will listen to you when you talk about your problems or before whom you may think aloud. What is more, a friend is a person who will help you if you are in trouble. Just as the saying goes: A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Friendship involves affection and intimacy. Friendship is based on warmth, trust and shared experience. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, the value of which can stand the test of time. True friendship is like health, the value of which is seldom known until it is lost.

Life without friends is like life on a desert island, and life without friendship is not worth living. Sharing joy and sorrow is the way to show your deep friendship. If you tell your joy to your friend, your joy will double. And if you pour your sorrow to your friend, your sorrow will be reduced by half.

Dealing with cultural differences

People from different countries speak different languages, keep different value systems, and have different ways of looking at things. These differences are generally called cultural differences. Cultural differences are subtle and are often unrecognized or overlooked. It is upsetting to find people who behave differently from us. We may, at first, assume that something is wrong with them.. Cultural backgrounds may influence people’s way of thinking. First, cultural background influences what people consider to be good manners or bad manners. Second, it influences what they consider to be polite or rude. Third, it influences what they consider to be on time or late.

Failure to recognize cultural differences may cause many problems. On the one hand, those who are uninformed about cultural differences may have difficulty communicating with their business associates from other cultures. On the other hand, inability to recognize cultural differences can make mutual understanding difficult.

There are many ways to deal with cultural differences. First, we can avoid unintentionally offending others by learning the basic characteristics of other cultures. For instance, we may ask our foreign friends about their everyday customs or take time to explain certain common customs of our own culture to them.