Friends
Read the text and fill the gaps with sentences A–G. Write the letter of the missing sentence in the box in the correct gap. There is one extra sentence you will not need.
Do you have a large circle of friends? Well, you are fortunate if you do! Many scientists now believe that people with lots of friends live 22% longer than those with hardly any friends. It's even been suggested that having lots of friends may make it less likely that you will catch a cold. I must say I find that hard to believe!
It seems that having a supportive social network can result in less stress and therefore better health. Why should this be? We're naturally sociable animals. We need others for our survival - it's genetic. So people with lots of social connections are more relaxed and easy-going, and that is related to better health.
Think about it - how do you feel when your best friend says something nasty to you? People we really like can hurt us much more when they make an insensitive comment, or let us down - because they are more important to us.
Would we be healthier if we didn't have any friends at all? When it comes to circles of friends, bigger is better. It seems to be a fact that as your social network gets smaller, your health risks get bigger, or so a lot of scientists believe.
What about people who prefer to be alone? Only if they actually feel lonely. Interestingly, bad behaviour and ill health among young people is higher among those who state that they are lonely. For older people who are lonely, the problems are more connected with sleeping badly, which in turn makes them more bad-tempered and anxious.
In stressful situations girls (and women) protect and care for others, and look for others to support them, which produces health benefits by reducing physical and mental stress. Boys (and men) tend not to do that, as male friendships are often more about helping out with practical problems - mending things and so on.
Unfortunately, people don't have as many friends as they used to. People, especially young people, have a lot of online friends these days, but the number of people who feel they have someone they can talk to about important subjects has dropped a lot: by nearly one third in the last ten years.