Research on friendship has established a number of facts, some interesting, even useful. Did you know that the average student has 5 to 6 friends, or that a friend who was previously an enemy is liked 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 fulfill is that 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; several 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 hostel. It Was found that similarity of attitudes (towards politics, religion and ethics, pastimes and aesthetics) was a good predictor of what friendships would be established by the end of four months, though it has less to do with initial alliances -- not surprisingly, 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 favor similarity rather than complementarity as an omen of successful relationship, though there is a complication: where marriage is concerned, once the field is 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 desirable. When a couple are not just similar but
almost identical, something else seems to be needed. Similarity can breed contempt; it has also 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 personality 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 little 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.
62. Research on friendship has demonstrated that
[ A ] every student has five to six friends
[ B ] judges are always influenced by a pretty face
[ C ] ugly people find it harder to make friends than beautiful people
[ D ] we tend to grow fond of people if we dislike them at first sight
63. Studies of friendships have indicated that in seeking friends we
[ A ] want to be flattered
[ B ] are looking for sympathy
[ C ] think they resemble us more than they really do
[ D] insist on them having similar attitudes to ourselves
64. The experiment conducted on students living in one hostel suggested that
[ A] it was impossible to predict which friendships would develop
[ B ] in the long run, people get on better with those who are like them
[ C ] students split up as soon as they discovered differences in attitudes
[ D ] students immediately recognized others with similar attitudes and interests
65. Studies of marriage relationships indicate that
[ A] opposites get on better than similar personalities
[ B ] exactly the same bases for success apply for ordinary friendships
[ C ] it is first of all necessary to limit prospective partners to people from similar backgrounds
[ D ] the most successful are those between people who are alike but not exactly the same
66. Which of the following best illustrates the major view of the passage?
[ A] Birds of a feather flock together.
[ B ] Opposites attract each other.
[ C ] Great minds think alike.
[ D ] A friend in need is a friend indeed.
【结构剖析】说明文。本文是一篇以友谊为主题的说明文。关于友谊的研究得到了_些新的结论：一般来说，相似性是友谊存在的主要因素。
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