<p class=”md-end-block md-p”><span class=”md-plain md-expand”>I disagree with the statement that maintaining relationship with old friends is more important than making new ones. Friendship is valuable, therefore keep a good relationship with our old friends is essential. However, learning how to make new friends matters much more.</span></p>
<p class=”md-end-block md-p”><span class=”md-plain”>The world is changing at a very high speed. The same for we human. Some years later, we may find that our once best friend is no longer the person we knew before. Bob and I were best friends when we were in primary school and middle school. We learned together, studied together and shared each other’s happiness and sadness. After the high school entrance exam, I was admitted to the best high school in my city and then entered one of China’s national research universities. But he failed the exam and went to a local vocational scool. Our lives have become hugely different since that exam. Several days ago, I met him in a local supermarket. We both recognized each other, but we could not find anything interesting to talk about, only simple greetings. We both changed a lot. As a consequence, keeping that friendship is pretty hard. We have to go our seperate ways.</span></p>
<p class=”md-end-block md-p md-focus”><span class=”md-plain md-expand”>Friends we made in the past can not always be around us. When we go abroad for further study or move to an unfamiliar city, our friends can do almost nothing to help us get through the tough times there. However, if you are outgoing enough and make a few friends in the new environment, life will become much easier with your friends’ company.</span></p>

A group of researchers has studied meerkats more closely than ever before, and the research findings they obtained from numerous experiments are contrary to the results of previous studies.

Scientists used to believe that meerkats which stand on guard are altruistic. That kind of behavior gives little reward back to them and makes them more vulnerable to predators like hwaks because of the alarm they release when they notice predators around them. However, all above are proved to be wrong. The new reseach reveals that before meerkats set out to stand guard for their companions, they eat a lot. Besides, when predators come, meerkats which stand guard are more likely to survive, because they are much closer to the burrow than other meerkats.

As for human beings, when we perform acts of altruism, it is completely wrong that we gain nothing back for ourselves. Instead, by doing these behaviors like donating a kidney to one of your relatives or a complete stranger or sharing food with beggers, we can get a multitude of appreciation and approval from our society. More importantly, we can feel a sense of self worth, and that’s where the meaning of our lives lies.

The Listening Material

You know, often in science, new findings force us to re-examine earlier beliefs and assumptions. And a recent study of meerkats is having exactly this effect. The study examined the meerkat’s behavior quite closely, much more closely than hadever been done before. And some interesting things were found … like about eating habits . . . it showed that typically meerkats eat before they stand guard- -so the ones standing guard had a full stomach!

And the study also found that since the sentinel is the first to see a predator coming, it’s the most likely to escape .. .because it often stands guard near a burrow, so it can run immediately into the burrow after giving the alarm. The othermeerkats, the ones scattered about looking for food, are actually in greater danger.

And in fact, other studies have suggested that when an animal creates an alarm, the alarm call might cause the other groupmembers either to gather together or else to move about very quickly, behaviors that might actually draw the predator’s

attention away from the caller, increasing that animal’s own chances of survival. And what about people- -what about somehuman acts that might be considered altruistic? Let’s take an extreme case: uh, suppose a person donates a kidney to arelative, or even to a complete stranger. A selfless act, right? But. . . doesn’t the donor receive appreciation and approvalfrom the stranger and from society? Doesn’t the donor gain an increased sense of self-worth? Couldn’t such nonmaterialrewards be considered very valuable to some people?