10. What Are Friends For？

    Jane meets her old friend, Fred.

    J： Hi, Fred！ How's everything？

    F： Not so good, I'm afraid. Supporting a family is becoming more and more difficult these days.

    J： What you say can't be more true. Everything is so expensive. I can hardly make ends meet myself.

    F： Oh, really？ Do you need any money？ What I have is not much, but I can loan you some.

    J： I'm OK. Thanks for being so thoughtful anyway.

    F： What are friends for？

    flatter 奉承   flattery

    meet with trouble 遇到麻烦   meet sb

    The chinaman presided over the meeting.

    meet you halfway¹ 折衷

    Let's compromise 妥协  to reach a compromise

    招呼语 greeting：

    How are you？

    How have you been？

    How are you getting along？

    How is everything？

    polite behavior

    Peter is afraid/scared/frightened of snakes.

    cockroach（es）  蟑螂

    support a family 养家   back you up 支持

    I couldn't care less. 不在乎

    hardly = almost not

    Today many city couples both have to work, or they can't make ends meet. 收支平衡

    We are in need of more parks in our city. =  We need more……

    stingy 小气的

    get by 说的过去，混过