2014考研英語(yǔ)：閱讀理解基礎(chǔ)階段練習(xí)題(九)_跨考網(wǎng)

　　2014考研英語(yǔ)：閱讀理解基礎(chǔ)階段練習(xí)題(九)

　　Text 9

　　Research on friendship has established a number of facts, some interesting, some even useful. Did you know that the average student has 5-6 friends, or that a friend who was previously an enemy is like more than one who has always been on the right side? Would you believe that physically attractive individuals are preferred as friends to those less comely, and is it fair that physically attractive defendants are less likely to be found guilty in court? Unfortunately, such titbits don’t tell us much more about the nature or the purpose of friendship. In fact, studies of friendship seem to implicate more complex factors.

　　For example, one function friendship seems to fulfi1 is that it supports the image we have of ourselves, and confirms the value of the attitudes we hold. Certainly we appear to project ourselves onto our friends; severa1 studies have shown that we judge them to be more like us than they (objectively) are. This suggests that we ought to choose friends who are similar to us rather than those Who would be complementary. In our experiment, some developing friendships were monitored amongst first-year students living in the same hoste1. It was found that similarity of attitudes (towards politics, religion and ethics, pastimes and aesthetics) was a good predictor of what friendships wou1d be estab1ished by the end of four months, though it has 1ess to do with initial alliances-not surprising1y, since attitudes may not be obvious on first inspection.

　　There have also been studies of pairings, both voluntary (married couples) and forced (student roommates), to see which remained together and which split up. Again, the evidence seems to favour similarity rather than complementarity as an omen of a successful relationship, though there is a complication: where marriage is concerned, once the field has been narrowed down to potential mates who come from similar backgrounds and share a broad range of attitudes and values, a degree of complementarity seems to become desirab1e. When a couple are not just similar but almost identical, something else seems to be needed. Simi1arity can breed contempt, it has a1so been found that when we find others obnoxious, we dislike them more if they are like us than when they are dissimilar!

　　The difficulty of linking friendship with similarity of persona1ity probably reflects the complexity of our personalities: we have many facets and therefore require a disparate group of friends to support us. This of course can explain why we may have two close friends who have litt1e in common, and indeed dislike each other. By and large, though, it looks as though we would do well to choose friends (and spouses) who resemble us. If this were not so, computer dating agencies would have gone out of business years ago. (463 words)