1. Look at the picture. What are the people doing? Check (✓) the answer(s).
_____ studying
_____ talking to friends
_____ looking at photos
_____ other: _______________
2. What social media sites do you use? Check (✓) the answer(s).
_____ Facebook®
_____ Pinterest™
_____ Twitter™
_____ other: _______________
VOCABULARY
Read the sentences. Then circle the definition of the boldfaced word.
Bronwyn Polson started The Friendship Page, a website about friendship.
1. Bronwyn wants to help her community in Melbourne, Australia.
A community is ____.
a. all the people in one place
b. all the people in the world
2. The movie last night was great! I laughed a lot. I was so happy.
You laugh when something is ____.
a. sad
b. funny
3. On The Friendship Page, people write about their goals: a good job, a lot of money, a big family.
A goal is ____.
a. a problem you have now
b. something you want in the future
4. When there is not war, people can live in peace.
When there is peace, people are ____.
a. happy and comfortable
b. unhappy and angry
5. Karen likes The Friendship Page. She wants to meet new friends.
When you meet people, you ____.
a. call them on the telephone
b. see or know them for the first time
6. If you have a problem, you can get advice on The Friendship Page. Then you feel better.
When you get advice, you get ____.
a. helpful ideas
b. money from your job
7. The Friendship Page is safe for young people. Bronwyn and her helpers watch The Friendship Page very carefully.
When something is safe, it is ____.
a. not dangerous to use
b. very easy to use
8. People on The Friendship Page like to chat about family, work, and friends.
When friends chat online, they ____ to each other.
a. write
b. visit
9. Your phone number is personal. You only give it to good friends and family. You don’t give your phone number online.
When something is personal, you ____.
a. don’t want everyone to know (about) it
b. tell a lot of people about it
The Friendship Page
1 Welcome to The Friendship Page—the website about friendship.
2 When Bronwyn Polson was 16 years old, she wanted to help her community.
People laughed at her. They said, “You are so young!” But she didn’t listen to them.
3 She was sure that friendship was important to everyone, so, in 1996, she started The Friendship Page.
4 The Friendship Page has two goals. One goal is to make the internet friendlier.
The other goal is to bring more peace to the world. The Friendship Page is really
about “peace through friendship.”
5 Today, 25 volunteers¹ help Bronwyn with The Friendship Page. They all work hard,
but they have a lot of fun. They think their work is very important.
6 The Friendship Page is very popular. More than 23,000 people in 200 countries
visit every day. That’s 8,000,000 people every year.
7 The Friendship Page is friendly, free, fun, and easy to use. You can make new
friends. You can get advice about friendship. There are interesting pages with
songs, poems, quotes,³ and more. You can also meet new and old friends in the
chat room.
8 People from 7 to 90 years old visit The Friendship Page. Most people are 13–34
years old. Young people and old people can be friends. They can help each other
and learn a lot. Fifty-five percent are female, and 45 percent are male.
9 The Friendship Page is very safe. The volunteers watch the site carefully. They
want it to be safe for everyone, especially for young people. They talk to the
Australian police about Internet safety, too. On The Friendship Page, people do not
use their real names. There are also no personal email addresses, no phone
numbers, and no personal pictures. Also, when you delete information from The
Friendship Page, no one can see it again. The information does not stay on the
Internet. This is not true of some other websites.
10 If you are interested in friendship, please visit The Friendship Page at
www.friendship.com.au.
Notes:
1 volunteer: people who don’t get money for working
2 friendlier: more friendly
3 quote: someone’s words
4 community: the people who live near you
5 goals: things you want to get
Facebook® Users:
- Total number of users per month: 1,000,000,000+
- Number of users per day: 618,000,000+
- Age distribution:
- 0–24 years old: 14%
- 25–34 years old: 18%
- 35–44 years old: 22%
- 45 years old or more: 46%
- Gender distribution:
- Males: 43%
- Females: 57%
People Use Facebook® To:
- Listen to songs: 22,000,000,000+
- Find old or new friends: 140,300,000,000+
- Share personal photos: 219,000,000,000+
- “Like” a friend’s photos or updates: 1,130,000,000,000+
Understanding Large Numbers:
- Example of large numbers:
- 618,000,000 = 618 million
- 618,000,000,000 = 618 billion
- 618,000,000,000,000 = 618 trillion
- You can also use a decimal point (.) to express large numbers:
- 140,300,000 = 140.3 million
- 140,300,000,000 = 140.3 billion
- 140,300,000,000,000 = 140.3 trillion
Reading Percentages:
Example: 22% of people who use Facebook®…
Percentages are also written as numbers:
14% = 14 percent
22% = 22 percent
When using percentages in sentences, the word “of” is added:
Example: 14% of Facebook® users…