Friends should always be honest with you, right? So when they lie, it can  be really hard to take. You want to trust your friends and that means knowing that they'll tell it to you straight no matter what it is. But a friend who lies isn't always trying to hurt you. Why does this happen?

Protect your feelings

One of the biggest reasons friends lie is simply to avoid hurting your feelings.

Some people don't understand the difference between being gently honest with a friend and being so straightforward（直接了当的）that they leave a verbal wound. They choose to avoid these two extremes in the form of a lie.

What you can do: Encourage your friends to be straight with you. No matter what their answer is, let them know you are grateful for it.

They feel embarrassed

Sometimes friends will lie about things in their life because they are too embarrassed to admit the truth. Maybe they are going through a rough time and they just don't want you to know about it.

What you can do: Avoid trying to badger（纠缠）your friend into telling you what's wrong. Instead, make it clear that you are there for them when and if they are ready to talk.

Avoid an argument with you

Perhaps your friend knows that if they tell you the truth, you'll get angry with them. Avoiding conflict is not always healthy for a friendship because it allows problems to grow over time. If you have a bad temper（脾气）, your friend might try and avoid getting into an argument with you and instead just tell you what you want to hear.

What you can do: Make sure that if a friend tells you something unpleasant, you don't overreact. Consider what's being said and why your friend is telling you this. If you do end up arguing, do it in a respectable way.

Exclude you

Lying isn't always a sign that friends are trying to protect you, however. Sometimes they lie because they want to exclude you from their plans.

What you can do：When you find out with certainty that your friend is lying to you, try and face it. Be forewarned, however, that if a friend lies to begin with, he or she may lie when asked a direct question about his or her dishonesty. Go with your guts on this. If you feel your friend is lying because he or she doesn't want to be around you, that's your wake-up call to move on.

   As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. _______ you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go（忙碌）from morning till night, it is hard to _______. But relaxation is _______ for a healthy mind and body.

Stress is a（n）_______ part of everyday life and there is no way to _______ it. In fact, it is not the bad thing that it is often supposed to be. A _______ amount of stress is important to provide motivation and give _______ to life. It is only when stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and _______ health.

The amount of stress a person can bear _______ very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such a ________ is obviously chief material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the ________ of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we ________ both chemically and physically. In fact we make a choice between ________ and fight. And in more ancient days the choices made the ________ between life and death. The crises we meet today are ________ to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it requires the same response. It is when such a reaction ________ long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes ________. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have ________ links with stress. Since we cannot ________ stress from our lives we need to find ways to ________ it.

So what do you think of stress? What is your way to deal with it?

   After the age of 25， the number of friendships we maintain begins to fall. 【小题1】

Learn to identify opportunities.

“We let chances to make friends pass us by every day，” says Kate Leaver in her book The Friendship Cure.  【小题2】“Instead of forcing a little small talk with your kind neighbours，” she says， “ask them in for a cuppa and get to know them. ” 

 【小题3】

Joining a group， club or class is an effective way to meet people. “Teaming up for a shared activity，project or goal is an experience that can promote bonding and closer connections，” says therapist Miriam Kirmayer. Pursue a challenge or skill you are interested in， because then you will have a good time and feel more at ease in starting a conversation.

Allow yourself to be vulnerable（脆弱的）.

 【小题4】 What if your offers are rejected? Leaver and Kirmayer say that a degree of vulnerability is needed in trying to start friendships. Keeping to yourself isn’t going to help you. Sharing recommendations or letting others in on plans， says Kirmayer， is a simple way to share， which will help build closeness and trust.

Don't put too much pressure on it.

As we age， our friendships change. According to a 2016 study， we hit our peak number of friendships at the age of 25. 【小题5】 clinical psychologist Linda Blair advises not putting too much pressure on any new connections and not expecting too much from one person.

Nowadays, more and more senior three students have mental health problems and it's hard for them to get rid of them. Why?

Yours,

Li Hua