Whether we notice it or not, our child is a little reflection of ourselves. They grow up looking more and more like us. They even have similar personalities and hobbies. And in some cases, the standard of choosing a good friend.

One day, my 10-year-old Jane said, “Mom, I made a new friend at school today. Can she come over tomorrow?” Her words made me extremely happy because Jane was a shy girl and I wanted her to make some friends to bring her out of her shell.

“Sure, honey, that sounds great.” I said, thinking back to my own childhood best friend, Susan. We lived across the street from each other in Washington Heights, New York. We met at the age of 10, too. Like my daughter. I was shy and had trouble making friends. But Susan drew me out. She was one of the friendliest people in school, with shiny black hair and a mile-wide smile. Thanks to Susan. I was happy every day.

In senior high school, Susan went on a trip to Florida. This was the first time we had to be away from each other for a few days. “I’ll be back soon and I will write to you as soon as I arrive.” she told me. But I didn’t get her phone call nor receive any mail from her. Soon, my family moved to New Jersey, making my hope of seeing Susan impossible.

Whenever I thought of her, tears came into my eyes.

The next day Jane brought her new friend home. “Hi, Mrs. Smith.” the little girl said. Her hair was so shiny and black and she gave me a big smile. “My name is Jo. My mom will pick me up 2 hours later.”

3 . “This Friday we’ll have the yearly Egg Drop Challenge,” said our science teacher, Mr. Baker.

“You can work alone or with a partner.”

My friend. Cassie, and I smiled at each other. We always worked on projects _________.

The goal of the Challenge was simple -- to build a protective container to keep an egg from breaking when _________ the stadium wall.

I made my sandwich that afternoon while waiting for Cassie. _________ the butter-cream gave me an idea.

“I have a brilliant design for our egg container!” I said when Cassie arrived. “We can _________ the egg with some butter cream.

Why not put the egg in a basket with a parachute (降落伞) _________?” Cassie rolled her eyes. “The parachute is better than that stupid idea.”

I couldn’t believe it. Of course we’d had our little _________ in the past, but she’d never called any of my ideas “stupid” before.

“Then I’ll build mine and you build yours!”

Since words had been out, our friendship was _________.

When Friday finally arrived, I had to _________ Cassie’s Egg Force One looked pretty good.

Anyway, my Egg-cellent Egg Cream didn’t look quite scientific. We kids carried our containers up three stadium steps and dropped them over the side wall. Those whose eggs broke were out; those whose egg _________ walked up three more steps and dropped them again. This would go on till the last egg broke. After four __________, only Cassie and I were left. I let go of my box. I heard someone say “ew” after seconds. Had my egg broken? I raced down the __________. The sidewalk was __________ with egg shell (蛋壳) from those failed drops. Finally I found my little Egg-cellent Egg Cream.

“That looks like egg drop soup, Laura,” Cassie said. She was holding her Egg Force One. My heart __________. Had she won? I looked at her basket. __________.

“My egg bounced out,” she explained, pointing to a broken shell.

“A tie.” Mr Baker said.

Cassie looked at me, and her glare __________. I laughed. She smiled…

6 . Jeffrey Hall, a teacher of Communications from the University of Kansas (KU), has used his research to define the exact amount of time necessary to make friends with someone. He’s also found how long it will take to deepen a relationship. His new study found that it takes around 50 hours of time together to go from being someone’s acquaintance to casual friend. It takes about 90 hours to go from being casual friends to friends, and more than 200 hours before considering someone a close friend or best friend.

But it isn’t spending just any kind of time together that deepens a friendship—hours spent working together, for example, don’t count as much as hours spent getting to know someone by hanging out, joking around, playing video games, and doing more playful activities. The study explains that these kinds of activities help us to form a deeper connection with someone. “We have to put that time in,” Hall said. “You can’t make friends without any effort.”

The results of the study come from analysis of 355 responses to an online survey from adults who said they had moved in the last six months and were looking for new friends in their new environment. Survey participants were asked about new relationships as well as hours spent together and activities they did. They were then asked to rate their resulting relationships according to the depth of their friendship.

The main conclusion that Hall came to is that making close friends takes serious effort. So if you want to have some best friends, you have to know that spending time with someone is the most important thing.

When Jayce Crowder was in kindergarten, he began noticing that he looked different from his classmates. They had two hands. But he had only one.

It started when one boy teased him. Jayce was in a bad mood. He’d return home in Des Moines, Iowa, with questions: Why am I different? Why me? Why? “He actually told us that he was mad at looking so different from others,” said his mother, Cortney Lewis. “That really hurt him.” Lewis admitted she didn’t know what to do at that point. How could she provide answers to her son’s questions when she had never found those answers herself ?

A few weeks later, Lewis came home from her job and turned on the TV to a news story about Trashaun Willis, an eighth-grader from Washington middle school, Iowa. The boy, then 14, had become an Internet star after posting videos of his slam dunk (扣篮), and, like Jayce, he was missing most of his left arm. Lewis called Jayce in to see Trashaun on TV, too.

He was shocked, staring at one dunk after another. He was shocked, staring at one dunk after another.

“Cool,” Jayce remembered thinking with excitement. “ I saw him dunking on TV.”

Willis’ story blew up last winter. The Des Moines Register wrote about him. NBC Nightly News flew to Iowa to interview him. Just recently, Sports Illustrated named him one of its Sports Kid of the Year finalists.

At the time, it seemed that watching Trashaun would simply be an inspiring moment for Jayce—he’d see a shining role model with a seemingly similar born disability. And had it stayed just that, Lewis would have been happy. But little did she know that a family friend had already reached out to the Des Moines Register, asking the newspaper to help set up a meeting with Trashaun to encourage Jayce and build his confidence. A few days later, the good news that Trashaun accepted the invitation to meet Jayce came.

Finally, the boys met at Washington Middle School on a Saturday afternoon several months later.

After the meeting, Jayce learned to accept his disability.

9 . Friendship needs care and attention to keep it in good health. Here are five ways to sustain (保持) long-distance friendships.

Long-lasting friendships share the characteristic that both sides equally contact (联系) and share with one another. With busy schedules, squeezing in phone calls can be a challenge.     1    .

Make sure you have communicated with your friend about how frequently each of you wants to be contacted and what method works best for you both.     2    . There are alternatives to constant written communication, such as leaving voice messages or having a group chat.

    3    . The friend who is remaining needs to be sensitive to all the additional time demands placed on the friend who has moved. The one in the new environment should be sympathetic to the fact that your friend may feel abandoned.

Anniversaries and birthdays carry even more weight in long-distance friendships. Although technology might make day-to-day communication possible, extra effort goes a long way on special days. Simply keeping a diary that keeps track of friends’ birthdays and other important dates will make sure nothing slips by you.

    5    , but long-distance friendships — even close ones — may require more conscious effort to sustain. Try to seek out chances to renew friendships. How to do it? Just spend face-to-face time together whenever possible.