group discussion friendship is one of the greatest pleasure that people can enjoy. it is very...

Group Discussion

Friendship is one of the greatest pleasure that people can enjoy. It is very difficult to find a better definition of friendship. What does friendship mean to you? How do you select your friends and how do you usually contact them?

Read the poem and discuss the following questions with your partners.

1. How do you understand friendship?

And what does friend mean to you?

2. How do you make a new friend?

3. Please say something about your best

friends.

Background information

Find more about Skype athttp://about.skype.com/

Skype was first released in 2003 written by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla and Jaan Tallinn. It developed into a platform with over 600 million users and was bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion. The service allows users to communicate with peers by voice using a microphone, video by using a webcam, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks.

Word Pretest:

Try to find out the following phrases in the article, and translate them.

theme song reciprocal nature representations of

belongingalter perspectives

media devicea forgotten age

by necessitybreaking-of-bread

online communicationphysical factors body languageInternet forum

references

主题歌互补性归属感

改变观点媒体设备

一个被遗弃的时代不可回避地分享食物的网上沟通物质因素肢体语言网上论坛

theme song reciprocal nature

representations of belongingalter perspectives

media devicea forgotten age

by necessitybreaking-of-bread

online communicationphysical factors body languageInternet forum

Reading Comprehension

True or False Questions:

1. The theme song from US television series Friends shows the

reciprocal nature of friendship.

2. Basically the benefits of having friends are for humans to survive.

3. If you want to make friends with somebody, it means you must

speak the same language with him or her.

4. Nowadays keeping in touch with your friends simply by knocking

on the door is a like a forlorn memorial to a forgotten age.

TT

FF

FF

TT

Read the news and answer the following questions:

1. “I’ll be there for you, ‘cause you’re there for me

too.” What nature of friendship do the lyrics

reveal?

Reading Comprehension

It reveals the reciprocal nature of

friendship. Here friendship means you do

something for your friends, and then they

will do them for you too.

Reading ComprehensionRead the news and answer the following questions:

2. What does the word “companion” mean?

The word comes from

Latin, and it means

“someone with whom you

eat bread”.


3. Why did people flock together to make friends

with each other in the past? And how did

friendships develop later?

Initially people flocked together for

increased strength and warmth, but later

we began to depend on

each other for conversation.


4. What are the recent changes to language and

communication here in the article?

Nowadays people use networks and media

devices to

keep in touch with their friends, so they may

spend hours

talking to people without seeing them face to

face.


5. How do the friends keep in touch with each other

in the movie Trainspotting (1996) ? Do people

contact in the same way? Why?

(1) In the movie Trainspotting a group of friends

keep in touch with each other simply by going to each

other’s houses and knocking on the door.

(2) No, they don’t.

(3) Because people have so many networks and

media devices on which to keep in touch with their

friends that they don’t even need to leave their own

house.


6. How do online friendships influence our real life?

Social dynamics, when hidden behind online communication, change entirely. Our online friendships and relationships are, most of the time, condensed into nothing but language. Body language and the uncountable other physical factors that frame real-life communication are irretrievably lost.

__ reciprocal

__ initially

__ representation

__ ultimate

__ perspective

__ memorial

__ dynamics

a. at the beginningb. being the last or concluding element

of a seriesc. an achievement that reminds people d. concerning each of two or more

persons or things; especially given or done in return

e. the way in which people or things have, react or affect each other

f. a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image

g. a way of regarding situations or topics etc

a

c

d

e

b

f

g

Match the words with their meanings.

Word PracticeFill in the blanks with the following words in the news

report.

excessive, condense, pale in comparison, monopoly excessive, condense, pale in comparison, monopoly

1. Miserable as current conditions are, they _________ with Japan's problems.

2. Your son suffers from your _________ shielding.

3. Marriage is the most common form of a _________, which is the situation when a market has only one seller of a good or service?

4. You can _________ milk by boiling away much of the water in it..

1. Miserable as current conditions are, they _________ with Japan's problems.

2. Your son suffers from your _________ shielding.

3. Marriage is the most common form of a _________, which is the situation when a market has only one seller of a good or service?

4. You can _________ milk by boiling away much of the water in it..

pale in

comparison

monopoly

excessive

condens

e

Word Practiceprofound, precedence, mausoleum, banalprofound, precedence, mausoleum, banal

1. Their conversation was ________ full of uninteresting remarks, such as "nice weather" and "slow traffic today. ".

2. My experience with those kids had a ________ impact on me.

3. This is the highest _________ username and password.

4. The most famous ____________ is guarded by the terracotta warriors which are believed to protect the emperor in the afterlife.

1. Their conversation was ________ full of uninteresting remarks, such as "nice weather" and "slow traffic today. ".

2. My experience with those kids had a ________ impact on me.

3. This is the highest _________ username and password.

4. The most famous ____________ is guarded by the terracotta warriors which are believed to protect the emperor in the afterlife.

banal

precedence

profound

mausoleum

Skimming and scanning: Find the answers to the following quesitons as quickly as possible.

Instruction

1.What does the word "companion" mean in Latin?

2.How did our friendships develop at some point in our past?

At some point in our past, though, our friendships developed. Initially we flocked together for increased strength and warmth, but later we began to depend on each other for conversation – for immaterial representations of belonging.

The word “companion”, which comes from Latin, means “someone with whom you eat bread”.

General Questions

3. How do people contact their friends today?

4. What does the writer think of the movie “Train Spotting“ ?

Nowadays, people have so many networks and media devices on which to keep in touch with their friends that they don’t even need to leave their own house.

General Questions

The movie, as a result, has the air of a forlorn memorial to a forgotten age when friendship was, by necessity, a real-world affair.

5. What is companionship like now?

6. What is the writer’s attitude towards some social network software, such as Skype?

Companionship is now further than ever from its physical, breaking-of-bread origins. We now spend hours talking to people without ever setting our eyes on them.

General Questions

Some software, such as Skype, allows our voices and images to be heard and viewed, but this communication pales in comparison to the closeness of a shared immediate environment.

HomeworkWork in teams and make a survey among your classmates based on the questions given here, and then write a report on it. 1. Do they have online pals? 2. How do they regard online friendship? 3. Do they really trust their online friends? 4. How long do they thing the online friendship will last? Is it possible for it to last a life-long time?

group discussion friendship is one of the greatest pleasure that people can enjoy. it is very...

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