【題目】 "You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family." That line comes from American writer Harper Lee's book "To Kill a Mockingbird." Now compare her words to another famous expression: "Blood is thicker than water." This means that family will always be with you while other people with no blood connection may come and go.
However, if forced to choose which is more important, American researchers now say friendship is more important than family. Their new study suggests that friends may be more important than family members, especially as we age.
The study comes from researchers at Michigan State University. They found the importance of friendship on health and happiness grows as people get older. William Chopik was one of the lead researchers in this study. He says, "keeping a few really good friends around can make a world of difference for our health and happiness. Family can be helpful and enjoyable, but can also cause trouble.”
The Michigan State researchers considered information from two separate surveys. In the first group, both family and friendship might be good for health and happiness. However, in the second, researchers said that friendship “became a stronger predictor of health and happiness” as people get older. Unhealthy friendship led to increased chronic conditions (慢性病).
But keeping a friendship takes time. "If a friendship can be through the test of time," Chopik said, "you know it must be a good one, a person you can turn to ask for help and advice and a person you want in your life.”
This may be good news for people who don’t have strong ties with family members. Not all of us are born into the families we need. But we all have the ability to choose friends that we need.
【1】The writer gives the underlined sentences in Paragraph 1 in order to .
A.introduce the book "To Kill a Mockingbird."B.lead the readers into the topic of this article
C.make people interested in the American writerD.help us know the important saying from the book
【2】According to the passage, people with weak family ties can .
A.stay with family membersB.develop stronger family relations
C.get more friends that they needD.never choose friends freely
【3】It can be learned from the passage that _____________.
A.friends are as important as family membersB.when we grow older, friendship matters more
C.as we age, family members are more valuableD.we always need friends and family members
【4】Where is this passage most probably taken from?
A.A magazine.B.A library guide.C.A storybook.D.A notice board.