填空题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} You are going to read a text of tips on interview, followed by a list of explanations (or examples). Choose the best explanation/example from the list A--F for each numbered subheading(41--45). There is one extra explanation/example which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on Answer Sheet 1. Attire, body language and manners count during interviews. After all, interviewers are regular people like the rest of us, easily impressed by good behavior and just as easily offended by inappropriate behavior. Yet, surveys show that job candidates' interview manners and other professionalisms are on the decline. On the next pages are tips for acting professionally before, during and after interviews, to avoid offending interviewers and increase your chances of landing a job. (For more interview tips and other job-searching help, click on the links in the sidebar, under Related Resources. ) These interview tips are based on good manners in the United States. Good manners are appreciated everywhere, but what constitutes then, may differ among other countries.{{B}}41. Do your homework:{{/B}} Research the company and study the job description before you interview, as your inter viewer will likely ask what you know about the company and why you want the job. ( ){{B}}42. Get your personal papers ready:{{/B}} Collect and neatly arrange your important papers and work samples in a nice briefcase or portfolio. ( ){{B}}Dress appropriately:{{/B}} Practice good hygiene, comb or brush your hair, and dress appropriately. Even if you know that the company dress is business-casual, dress up anyway. It shows professionalism and respect, and most importantly, that you know how to dress for interviews.{{B}}43. Be punctual:{{/B}} Unless otherwise instructed (e. g. , to fill out a job application), arrive five to ten minutes early for the interview; ( ){{B}}Sit with good pasture:{{/B}} If you don't know what to do with your hands, keep them folded in your lap. This is another indication of good manners. Avoid crossing your arms over your chesty as it subliminally demonstrates a closed mind to some.{{B}}44. Read the mood:{{/B}} ( ){{B}}45. Maintain eye contact:{{/B}} Maintain eye contact with the interviewer. ( ) It's okay to ask questions to better answer the questions the interviewer asks you. But withhold the bulk of your questions until the interviewer asks if you have any, which is typically toward the end of the interview. Avoid asking the frivolous just because interviewers expect you to have questions. Instead, ask about important matters, such as job duties, management style and the financial health of the company. It's not a good idea to ask questions about vacation, sick days, lunch breaks and so on, right off the bat. Ask about the lesser matters of importance during follow-up interviews. Typically, you'll negotiate salary, benefits, perks and such in a follow-up interview. Regardless, don't bring it up until asked, yet be ready to discuss it at anytime. A. This makes you look organized and professional. Remember to pack relevant documents such as extra resumes and reference lists, immigrant work-authorization papers, letters of recommendation, and information required on job applications. Bring at least one pen and pencil, and a notepad too. B. If the interviewer is formal, then you probably should be, too. If the interviewer is casual, then follow along while remaining courteous and professional. In either case, try to appear to be relaxed, but not too relaxed. It's not a good idea to put your feet up on the interviewer's desk! C. Avoid staring or you might make the interviewer uncomfortable, but don't look away too often either. To some, failure to maintain a comfortable level of eye contact indicates that you are lying, reaching for answers or lacking confidence. D. It also helps you to formulate questions about the company and job. Interviewers typically expect you to ask such questions. E. If it's possible without making a commotion, scoot your chair a little closer to the interviewer's desk or take the chair closet to the desk, like you're ready to dive right in. This shows interest and confidence. But don't invade the interviewer's personal space, a perimeter of about two feet by U. 8. standards. F. This shows that you are eager and punctual. If you're not at least five minutes early for an interview, you're five minutes late! But don't arrive more than ten minutes early, aa it might be inconvenient for your interviewers. Definitely don't be late!

填空题Directions: In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41- 45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. Imagine this: the British government decides to set up an international committee to examine whether the English spoken around the world is up to scratch. 41. ______ If it sounds too ridiculous to be true, take another look at recent comments by Italy's Agriculture Minister, Giovanni Alemanno. The minister, from the right-faction of the National Alliance, is about to set up an international agency to patrol standards of Italian cuisine—he has even promised to send some culinary heavy-hitters to Australia to decide which restaurants have deviated from the norm of Italian cooking. 42. ______ We can expect the minister's men to anoint as autentico the food of a well-connected restaurant using only imported Italian ingredients, while others will be warned: buy Italian, or a foreign government will get you. They will then return to Rome chanting veni, edi, vici—"I came, I ate, I conquered. " Most Italian-Australian restaurateurs will have the sense to tell Mr. Alemanno's pizza patrol where to put its bizarre notions of la cucina italiana. 43. ______ The move comes as European Union membership forces the traditionally inward-looking Italy to face the world. And with a new outlook, Italian food producers have come to the realization, that there are more people of Italian descent abroad than in Italy, and they—the children of the diaspora—are setting the standards for how Italian culture is perceived internationally. The sophisticated buongustai in Italy may scoff at the contamination of Italian-American cuisine (pasta with meatballs, the "pepperoni pizza", the bad coffee). 44. ______ Who doesn't know the meaning of capish? It's not from standard Italian, but the Neapolitan lingua franca spoken on New York's Mulberry Street in the early 1900s, when a million Italian immigrants lived in just a few neighbourhoods. Even the stereotypical mafioso comes to us from the streets of Chicago, not Palermo, and always via American popular culture. Italy now feels it's losing control of its culture and, more importantly, what it sees as its right to demand a slice of the action every time a restaurant flies an Italian flag. But should this matter to people of Italian descent around the world? Or, for that matter, to anyone running an Italian restaurant outside of Italy? 45. ______ And whatever form Italian food and culture may have taken overseas, it has been promoted and maintained by local communities, not Italian ministers. Their culture doesn't now require the approval of Italian authorities. If Mr. Alemanno wants to defend Italy's honour, he should get his kitchen hit-men to target those bandits in Florence who charge tourists $5 for a slice of microwaved margherita.[A] But they forget that everything the English-speaking world knows about Italian culture comes from the Little Italies of the United States.[B] Prime Minister Tony Blair's hand-picked investigators travel the globe, issuing on-the-spot fines for anyone deemed to have strayed too far from standard pronunciation. American idioms may even attract a prison sentence.[C] Americans, Canadians, Australians and Argentines with Italian antecedents realize they owe the Italian state nothing. They have been ignored by generations of Italian governments and treated with legendary contempt by Italian consular staff.[D] Immigrant communities are a painful reminder that, in one generation, Italy has gone from the Third World reality of Carlo Levi's novel, Christ Stopped at Eboli, to the glamour of Milan's catwalks.[E] Yet there's something disturbing about Italy's new obsession with reining in the culture of its communities abroad. (Italian coffee producers are also campaigning for their own form of international extortion—an espresso certificate. )[F] Just in case restaurants in Melbourne or Sydney fear that their pizza is facing serious scrutiny, here's the lowdown: It's a joke, an unpalatable mix of trade promotion and ethno-chauvinism.[G] As a result, their culture is a peasant one, miles from the fashionable, affluent lifestyle contemporary Italy is so desperate to promote.

填空题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}You are going to read a text about Gold-Medal Workouts, followed by a list of examples. Choose the best example from the list A--F for each numbered subheading (41--45). There is one extra example which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. Drawing on biomechanics and other sports science, Olympic hopefuls target just the right muscles and moves. Olympians of yesteryear shared the same goal, but they would hardly recognize today's training techniques. To achieve to Olympian ideal of "faster, higher, stronger," coaches now realize, athletes don't have to train more but they do have to, train smarter. That's why, these days, cross-country (Nordic) skiers kneel on skateboards and tug on pulleys to haul themselves up a ramp. By analyzing every motion that goes into a ski jump or a luge run, the science of biomechanics breaks down events into their component parts and determines which movements of which muscles are the key to a superlative performance. Knowing that is crucial for a simple but, to many coaches and trainers, unexpected reason: it turns out that although training for general conditioning improves fitness, the best way to boost performance is by working the muscles and practicing the moves that will be used in competition. It's called sport-specific training. {{B}}41. Ways to work the right muscles and train the right patterns of movement.{{/B}} Sport-specific training doesn't have to mean running the actual course or performing the exact event. There are other ways to work the right muscles and train the right pattern of movement. Doing situps on a Swiss ball, for instance, develops torso control as well as strength. The Finnish ice-hockey team recently added acrobatics to its training regime because it helps players to balance on the ice, says head coach Raimo Summanen. {{B}}Performance-enhancing strategies.{{/B}} The advances in physiology that have revolutionized training are giving sports scientists a better under-standing of how to improve strength, power, speed and both aerobic and anaerobic fitness: {{B}}42. Training the start-up.{{/B}} Speed is partly genetic. A star sprinter is probably born with a preponderance of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which fire repeatedly with only microsecond rests in between. Speed training therefore aims to recruit more fast-twitch fibers and increase the speed of nerve signals that command muscles to move.{{B}} 43. Strength reflects the percentage of muscle fibers the body can recruit for a given movement.{{/B}} "Someone with pure strength can recruit 90 percent of these fibers, while someone else recruits only 50 percent," says the USOC's Davis.{{B}} 44. Developing anaerobic fitness.{{/B}} Anaerobic fitness keeps the muscles moving even when the heart can't provide enough oxygen. To postpone the point when acid begins to accumulate, or at least train the body to tolerate it, Jim Walker has the speed skaters he works with push themselves beyond what they need to do in competition.{{B}} Power is strength with speed.{{/B}} "One of the biggest changes in strength training is that we're getting away from pure strength and emphasizing power, or explosive strength," says USOC strength-and- conditioning coordinator Kevin Ebel.{{B}} 45. Difficulties under way.{{/B}} It's still difficult to persuade coaches to let sports scientists mess with their athletes. To overcome such resistance, the USOC's Peter Davis has set up "performance-enhancing teams" where coaches and scientists put their heads together and apply the best science to training. Come February, the world will see how science fared in its attempt to mold athletic excellence.[A] Zach Lund races skeleton (a head-first, belly-down sled race), in which the start is crucial. He has to sprint in a bent-over position (pushing his sled along the track), then hop in without slowing the sled. "You have to go from a hard sprint to being really calm in order to go down the track well," says Lund. To improve his speed he does leg presses while lying on his back, or leg curls on his stomach (bringing his foot to his backside).[B] Despite the finding that drafting reduces the demand on the heart of a speed skater and generally improves performance, for instance, most skaters still prefer to go out fast and first.[C] Sprinters who skate 500 meters in the Olympics, for instance, power through multiple 300 meters, and do it faster than they Skate the 500. By raising the anaerobic threshold, the training gives skaters a better shot at exploding with a sprint at the finish.[D] Luge, for instance, requires precise control of infinitesimal muscle movements: "Overcorrect on a turn," says driver Mark Grimmette, "and you're dead." To achieve that precise control, he and his doubles partner, Brian Martin, devote a good chunk of their training time to exercises on those squishy rubber spheres called Swiss balls.[E] Aerobic fitness is hockey star Cammi Granato's goal one autumn morning as she pedals a stationary bike with sweaty fury at the USOC training center in Lake Placid, New York. When Granato finally staggers off the bike and crumples onto the padded platform, she's had a tougher workout than in any hockey period which is exactly the point.[F] The thigh's quadriceps, for instance, consist of millions of fibers organized into what are called motor units. When a speed skater pushes off the ice, he recruits a certain percentage of them to fire; the others are relaxing and so do not contribute to the movement.

填空题Curiously, for a publication called a newspaper, no one has ever coined a standard definition of news. But for the most part, news usually falls under one broad classification the abnormal. It is human folly, mechanical failures and natural disasters that often "make the news". (1) . Occasionally, a reporter will go to jail rather than reveal the name of a confidential source for a news story. American newspapers proudly consider themselves the fourth branch of government—the watchdog branch that exposes legislative, executive and judicial misbehavior. (2) . Others are called "general assignment reporters", which means they are on call for a variety of stories such as accidents, civil events and human-interest stories. Depending on a newspaper's needs during the daily news cycle, seasoned reporters easily shift between beat and general-assignment work. (New reporters once were called cubs, but the term is no longer used.) (3) . They are our chroniclers of daily life, sorting, sifting and bringing a sense of order to a disorderly world. (4) . Other editors—sports, photo, state, national, features and obituary, for example— may also report to the managing editor. (5) Once the city or metro editor has finished editing a reporter's raw copy, the story moves from the composition system via the computer network to another part of the news division—the copy desk. Here, copy editors check for spelling and other errors of usage. They may also look for "holes" in the story that would confuse readers or leave their questions unanswered. If necessary, copy editors may check facts in the newspaper's library, which maintains a large collection of reference books, microfilm and online copies of stories that have appeared in the paper. A. All reporters are ultimately responsible to an editor. Depending on its size, a newspaper may have numerous editors, beginning with an executive editor responsible for the news division. Immediately below the executive editor is the managing editor, the person who oversees the day-to-day work of the news division. B. Reporters are a newspaper's front-line eyes and ears. Reporters glean information from many sources, some public, such as police records, and others private, such as a government informant. C. Newspapers are increasingly doing this work, called pagination, with personal computers using software available at any office supply store. Microsoft Windows, Word and Quark Express are three programs that, though not designed for newspaper production, are easily adapted for it. D. However, the best known and in some ways the most crucial editor is the city or metro editor. This is the editor that reporters work for directly. The city or metro editor assigns stories, enforces deadlines and is the first to see reporters' raw copy on the composition system or computer network. These editors are called gatekeepers, because they control much of what will and will not appear in the next day's paper. E. Before we see what happens to the electronic pages built by the copy desk, it will be helpful to understand how other divisions of the newspapers contribute to the production cycle. F. Some reporters are assigned to beats, or an area of coverage, such as the courts, city hall, education, business, medicine and so forth. G. In the movies, reporters have exciting, frenzied and dangerous jobs as they live a famous pronouncement of the newspaper business: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Although a few members of the media have been killed as a result of investigations into wrongdoing, newspaper work for the great majority of reporters is routine.

填空题[A]Theseissuescutrightacrosstraditionalreligiousdogma.Manypeopleclingtothebeliefthattheoriginofliferequiredauniquedivineact.ButfflifeonEarthisnotunique,thecaseforamiraculousoriginwouldbeundermined.ThediscoveryofevenahumblebacteriumonMars,ifitcouldbeshowntohavearisenindependentlyfromEarthlifewouldsupporttheviewthatlifeemergesnaturally.[B]Contrarytopopularbelief,speculationthatwearenotaloneintheuniverseisasoldasphilosophyitself.TheessentialstepsinthereasoningwerebasedontheatomictheoryoftheancientGreekphilosopherDemocritus.First,thelawsofnatureareuniversal.Second,thereisnothingspecialorprivilegedaboutEarth.Finally,ifsomethingispossible,naturetendstomakeithappen.Philosophyisonething,fillinginthephysicaldetailsisanother.Althoughastronomersincreasinglysuspectthatbio-friendlyplanetsmaybeabundantintheuniverse,thechemicalstepsleadingtoliferemainlargelymysterious.[C]Thereis,however,acontraryview-onethatisgainingstrengthanddirectlychallengesorthodoxbiology.Itisthatcomplexitycanemergespontaneouslythroughaprocessofself-organization,ffmatterandenergyhaveaninbuilttendencytoamplifyandchannelorganizedcomplexity,theoddsagainsttheformationoflifeandthesubsequentevolutionofintelligencecouldbedrasticallyshortened.Therelevanceofself-organizationtobiologyremainshotlydebated.Itsuggests,however,thatalthoughtheuniverseasawholemaybedying,anopposite,progressivetrendmayalsoexistasafundamentalpropertyofnature.Theemergenceofextraterrestriallife,particularly-intelligentlife,isakeytestfortheserivalparadigms.[D]Similarreasoningappliestoevolution.Accordingtotheorthodoxview,Darwinianselectionisutterlyblind.Anyimpressionthatthetransitionfrommicrobestomanrepresentsprogressispurechauvinismofourpart.Thepathofevolutionismerelyarandomwalkthroughtherealmofpossibilities.Ifthisisright,therecanbenodirectionality,noinnatedriveforward;inparticular,nopushtowardconsciousnessandintelligence.ShouldEarthbestruckbyanasteroid,destroyingallhigherlife-forms,intelligentbeings,stilllesshumanoids,wouldalmostcertainlynotarisenexttimearound.[E]Traditionally,biologistsbelievedthatlifeisafreak-theresultofazillion-to-on&accidentalconcatenationofmolecules.Itfollowsthatthelikelihoodofitshappeningagainelsewhereinthecosmosisinfinitesimal.Thisviewpointde-rivesfromthesecondlawofthermodynamics,whichpredictsthattheuniverseisdying-slowlyandinexorablydegeneratingtowardastateoftotalchaos.Lifestumblesacrossthistrendonlybecauseitisapurestatisticalluck.[F]Historically,theRomanCatholicchurchregardedanydiscussionofalienlifeasheresy.SpeculatingaboutotherinhabitedworldswasonereasonphilosopherGiordanoBrunowasburnedatthestakein1600.Beliefthatmankindhas-aspecialrelationshipwithGodiscentraltothemonotheisticreligions.Theexistenceofalienbeings,especiallyiftheywerefurtheradvancedthanhumansintellectuallyandspiritually,woulddisruptthiscozyview.[G]Thediscoveryoflifebeyondearthwouldtransformnotonlyoursciencebutalsoourreligions,ourbeliefsystemsandourentireworldview.Forinasense,thesearchforextraterrestriallifeisreallyasearchforourselves-whoweareandwhatourplaceisinthegrandsweepofthecosmos.Order:

填空题We might marvel at the process made in every field of study, but the method of testing a person's knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years educationists have still failed to devise anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. 41. ______ They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person's true ability and aptitude. 42. ______ Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn't matter that you weren't feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don't count: the exam goes on. no one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of "dropouts": young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students? 43. ______ Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedom. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are best trained in the technique of working under duress. 44. ______ Examiners are only human. They get tried and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge's decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner's. 45. ______ Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall: "I were a teenage drop-out and now I am a teenage millionaire."[A] A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the students are encouraged to memorize.[B] The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner.[C] Examinations can be taken as a test of a student's knowledge about a particular subject which would tell the student where he stands among others, and how much he knows and how much he ought to know.[D] As anxiety-makers examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success or failure in our society.[E] The student appearing for the exam takes it under extreme tension and pressure because he knows that he has only one chance to prove his worth and if he fails, he will be left behind for the rest of his life.[F] For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite.[G] There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person's true abilities.

填空题Anyone paying attention to the debate over Social Security has heard a litany of dates. There's 2018, when the program is expected to start taking in less in taxes than it pays out in benefits. And there's 2042 (or 2052 by some estimates), when its trust fund is supposed to run out of money. (41)___________________ For years, the government has collected more in Social Security taxes than it needed to pay current benefits, Those excess collections are credited to the Social Security Trust Fund, ostensibly to pay future retirees. But there is no actual money in the fund. Instead, the government spends the money for other purposes and issues the fund IOUs. In 2009, the shell game begins to end. The amount by which Social Security taxes exceed benefits starts to shrink. (42)___________________ The problem could have been avoided, and it still could be reduced. If the rest of the budget was in good shape--and particularly if the government bad staved on the path it was on five years ago of buying down the national debt--lawmakers could simply re-borrow the money to pay benefits. They could have a leisurely debate over what, if anything, else to do. (43)___________________ This raises a question: If the biggest immediate problem of Social Security is that it will soon make the deficit worse, wouldn't it be better to address the underlying deficit? In other words--as the Bush administration embarks on a 60 day, 60 stop tour to promote Social Security overhaul--are we really debating the right problem? (44)___________________ The money that has been borrowed, or is projeced to be borrowed, in Fresident Bush's two terms alone would come close to solving Social Security's solvency problems for at least the next 75 years. The Office of Management and Budget projects cumulative borrowing of $2. 6 trillion. The Social Security Administration estimates that $3.7 trillion would shore up the program until at least 2080. (45)___________________. Exploding Medicare and Medicaid costs, the loss of revenue because of the recent tax cuts and likely changes in the alternative minimum tax (AMT) present a bleak outlook over the next 10 years. Making the Bush tax cuts permanent and fixing the AMT could lead to deficits of about $650 billion to $750 billion by the middle of the next decade.A. By 2018--sooner, if private accounts are created--the flow reverses. Instead of spending a surplus, the government will need to begin paying off its IOUs. Absent large tax hikes or spending cuts, already astronomical deficits will skyrocket.B. The bottom line is that Washington, through profligate borrowing and policies that lock in red ink for years to come, is passing the burden to future generations. ,And the problem is getting worse.C. But the most important date will arrive sooner in 2009. That's when the cost of paying benefits to the first wave of retiring baby boomers will begin exposing the accounting gimmickry that is the true driver of the Social Security "crisis." To the extent a crisis exists, it is not really about Social Security. It is about decades of irresponsible budgeting that threatens future retirees.D. As bad as the current record deficits look ($427 billion this year alone), they likely will get worse in the next decade as the result of fiscal time bombs hard-wired into government spending and tax plans.E. Left unchecked, chronic deficits will more than offset any good that comes out of Social Security reform. Deficits make the government more beholden to its creditors, many of them foreign. As the national debt surges, so does the portion of the budget dedicated to paying interest on that debt.F. But that is not an option given the dire budgetary situation. Social Security will soon become a drain on a government already under tremendous fiscal stress. It's the difference between having a zero balance on your credit card and being at your credit limit. If you're maxed out, you lose the flexibility to take on new debt to deal with an expense.G. This is not to say Social Security reform--with or without the private accounts proposed by Bush --is not worthwhile. But it is only one of many necessary steps to put the nation on a sound fiscal footing and ensure that future generations will have a reasonably comfortable retirement.

填空题If a farmer wishes to succeed

填空题Back when we were kids, the hours spent with friends were too numerous to count. There were marathon telephone conversations; all-night studying and giggling sessions. Even after boyfriends entered the pictured our best friends remained irreplaceable. And time was the means by Which we nurtured those friendships. Now as adult women we never seem to have enough time for anything. Husbands, kids, careers and avocations--all require attention; too often, making time for our friends comes last on the list of priorities. And yet, ironically, we need our friends as much as ever in adulthood. A friendship network is absolutely crucial for our well being as adults. We have to do the hard work of building and sustaining the network. Here are some important ways for accomplishing this. Let go of your less central friendships. Many of our friendships were never meant to last a lifetime. It's natural that some friendships have time limits. Furthermore, now everyone has a busy social calendar, so pull back from some people that you don't really want to draw close to and give the most promising friendship a fair chance to grow. (41) Be willing to "drop everything" when you're truly needed. You may get a call from a friend who is really depressed over a certain problem when you are just sitting down to enjoy a romantic dinner with your husband. This is just one of those instances when a friend's needs mattered more. (42) Take advantage of the mails. Nearly all of us have pals living far away--friends we miss very much. Given the limited time available for visits and the high price of phone calls, writing is a fine way to keep in touch and makes both sender and receiver feel good. (43) Risk expressing negative feelings. When time together is tough to come by, it's natural to want the mood during that time to be upbeat. And many people fear that others will think less of you if you express the negative feelings like anger and hurt. (44) Don't make your friends' problems your own. Sharing your friend's grief is the way you show deep friendship. Never underestimate the value of loyalty. Loyalty has always been rated as one of the most desired qualities in friends. True loyalty can be a fairly subtle thing. Some people feel it means that, no matter what, your friend will always take you side. But real loyalty is being accepting the person, not necessarily of certain actions your friend might take. (45) Give the gift of time as often as time allows. Time is what we don't have nearly enough of--and yet, armed with a little ingenuity, we can make it to give it to our friends. The last but not the least thing to keep a friendship alive is to say to your friends "I miss you and love you." Saying that at the end of a phone conversation, or a visit, or writing it on a birthday card, can sustain your friendship for the times you aren't together.[A] But taking on your friend's pain doesn't make that pain go away. There's a big difference between empathy or recognizing a friend's pain, and over identification, which makes the sufferer feel even weaker-- "I must be in worse pain than I even thought, because the person I'm confiding in is suffering so much!" Remember troubled people just need their friends to stay grounded in their own feelings.[B] Remember honesty is the key to keeping a friendship real. Sharing your pain will actually deepen a friendship.[C] Besides, letters, cards and postcards have the virtue of being tangible--friends can keep them and reread them for years to come.[D] The trick is remembering that a little is better than none and that you can do two things at Once. For instance, if you both go for a weekly aerobics, go on the same day. If you both want to go on vocation, schedule the same destination.[E] Careful listening, clear writing, close reading, plain speaking, and accurate description- will be invaluable. In tomorrow's fast-paced business environment there will be precious little time to correct any misunderstandings. Communications breakdown may well become a fatal corporate disease.[F] Sometimes, because of our unbreakable commitments or other circumstances, we simply can't give a needy friend the time we'd like. If you can't be there at that given moment, say something like, "I wish I could be with you I can hear that you're in pain. May I call you tomorrow?" Be sure your friend knows she's cared about.