When two people are true friends, each is like a mirror to the other, who can see what kind of a person he himself has proved to be and whether he has moral excellence or not.

5. Friendship of this kind necessarily involves conversations about well-being and of what might be involved in living the good life. (Para.7)

We can find all the good qualities in virtuous friends and it is those qualities that make permanent friendship possible.

Checking Your Vocabulary Word Detective

1 Put down the right word from Text B in the space provided according to the given definition. The first letter of each word is already given.

Example: keen: (of the mind, the senses, etc.) good, strong, quick at understanding, etc.

1) correspond: exchange letters regularly

2) build: shape and size, esp. of the human body

3) sensible: reasonable; having or showing good sense

4) brilliant: very bright, splendid, or showy in appearance

5) grasp: take or keep a firm hold of, esp. with the hands

6) appoint: arrange or decide (esp. a time or place when something will happen)

7) hardware: equipment and tools for the home and garden, such as pans, garden tools, etc.

8) gaze: look steadily, esp. for a long time and often without being conscious of what one is doing

2 Fill in each blank with a word or phrase from Text B. Both the explanation and the number of the paragraph in which the target word or phrase appears are given in brackets. Be sure to use the proper form.

Example: We were talking on the phone when, all of a sudden , the line went dead.

(suddenly: Para. 29)

1) Would you just cast your eyes / an eye over these calculations (计算的结果) to see if there is anything wrong? (look through sth. quickly: Para. 1)

2) These beautiful old houses are being torn down to make way for a new road. (pull down: Para. 4)

3) The owners of the restaurant must be making a fortune — they serve quite simple food at very high prices!

(earn a large amount of money: Para. 6)

4) The missing letter eventually turned up inside a book. (make one’s appearance: Para. 8)

5) I have lost track of the number of times he’s asked me to lend him some money.

(fail to keep myself informed about: Para. 8)

6) If there’s no further discussion, perhaps we can pass on to the next subject. (move on: Para. 16)

7) The police are checking up on what the man told them about the robbery. (examine to see the truthfulness of: Para. 16)

8) He was under arrest when drugs were found in his bag at the customs (海关).

(be captured by the police: Para. 30)

Checking Your Comprehension

1 Answer the following questions with the information contained in Text B.

1) Where did the story take place?

The story took place in New York.

2) What was the policeman doing that night?

He was on night duty, patrolling the avenues and trying to prevent any possible crimes on his beat.

3) Where did the man in the doorway of a hardware store come from?

He came from the western part of the United States, which was still wild and under-developed at that time.

4) Why was he standing there?

He was waiting by appointment for Jimmy Wells, the best friend of his youth.

5) What was the appointment about?

Twenty years before, Jimmy and Bob had made an appointment that they would meet again in the same restaurant exactly twenty years from that date and time, no matter what their conditions might be or from what distance they might have to come.

6) What happened to the man who had stood in the doorway in the end? And why?

He was arrested by a policeman in plain clothes, because he was wanted by the Chicago police.

7) Who was the policeman in uniform?

He was Jimmy Wells, Bob’s friend of youth.

8) Did the two old friends meet that night?

Yes, they did meet that night, but in a very special way. Jimmy approached Bob as a patrolman, talking to Bob as if they did not know each other before.

2 Read the following sentences carefully and discuss in pairs what the author intends to say by the italicised parts.

1) You couldn’t have dragged Jimmy out of New York; he thought it was the only place on earth. (Para. 6)

He loved New York so much that he preferred to live nowhere else.

2) The waiting man pulled out a handsome watch, the lids of it set with small diamonds. (Para. 9)

It was a luxurious watch, handsome and with small diamonds set on its lids. Judging by the watch, one might think that he had made a fortune in the West.