Name: Emily and Cindy
Major: English
ID #:94153285 and 94153328
Date:26/09/2006
　
Topic-A frustrated friend

　Emily and Mike spend a lot of time together. They are university classmates and good friends. But they are very different! Mike is charming, popular and often forgets things. Emily is quite, kind and helpful.

　Lately, Emily is a little frustrated with Mike ,“Mr. popular”often asks Emily to do things for him. Emily is glad to help his friend. But when Emily asks Mike for help, Mike says he is too busy. Helping Mike is taking up more and more of Emily’s time. And Emily is starting to feel like Mike really takes advantage of her.

　If you were Emily, what would you do?

Decision 1
(Emily talks to her friend, Cindy)

Emily: I am not sure what to do. Should I just keep helping Mike whenever he asks me?

Cindy: I don not know. You might start to resent him. That is not good for your friendship.

Emily: I know.

Cindy: Could you talk to him about this?

Emily: I could, but I don’t like to confront people. You know that.

Cindy: Well, then, what are you going to do? Just resent him?

Emily: No. But I don’t have to do everything he asks, either. I can just tell him I am busy.

Cindy: So you are just going to make up excuses not to help him?

Emily: Sure. That’s probably the easiest way to handle it.

Decision 2

Emily: I feel like my friendship with Mike is becoming one-sided. I don’t mind doing favors for him. But I wish he would help me sometimes, too.

Cindy: Why doesn’t he? That seems kind of selfish.

Emily: He doesn’t mean to be. I’m sure he doesn’t realize he always says no to me. He just tries to do too much, so he doesn’t have any time left over.

Cindy: Well, do you really have time to do all these favors?

Emily: I guess so. I might as well keep doing favors for him. It doesn’t really hurt, and after all, he is a good friend.

Cindy: And you’re a good friend, too.

Questions

1.If you were Emily, what would you do?
　A. resent Mike
　B. forgive Mike

2.What is Mike's personality?
　A. charming
　B. kind
　C. popular