NEW SENIOR ENGLISH FOR CHINA

STUDENT’S BOOK 1

Unit 1 Friendship0629

Reading materials

Passage 1

ANNE’SBEST FRIEND

Do youwant a friend whom you could tell everything to, like your deepest thoughts andfeelings? Or are you afraid that your friend would laugh at you, or would notunderstand what you are going through? Anne Frank wanted the first kind, so shemade her diary her best friend.

Anne

lived in Amsterdam in the Netherlands during World WarⅡ.Her family wasJewish so they had to hide or they would be caught by German Nazis. She and herfamily hid away for nearly twenty-five months before they were discovered.During that time the only true friend was her diary. She said, “I don’t want toset down a series of facts in a diary as most people do, but I want this diaryitself to be my friend, I shall call my friend Kitty.” Now read how she feltafter being in the hiding place since July 1942.

Thursday 15thJune, 1944

Dear Kitty,

Iwonder if it’s because I haven’t been able to be outdoors for so long that I’vegrown so crazy about everything to do with nature. I can well remember thatthere was a time when a deep blue sky, the song of the birds, moonlight andflowers could never have kept me spellbound. That’s changed since I came here.

… Forexample, one evening when it was so warm, I stayed awake on purpose until halfpast eleven in order to have a good look at the moon by myself. But as the moongave far too much light, I didn’t dare to open a window. Another time fivemonths ago, I happened to be upstairs at dust when the window was open. Ididn’t go downstairs until the window had to be shut. The dark, rainy evening,the wind, the thundering clouds held me entirely in their power; it was thefirst time in a year and a half that I’d seen the night face to face…

…Sadly…I am only able to look at the nature through dirty curtains hanging before verydusty windows. It’s no pleasure looking through these any longer because natureis one thing that really must be experienced.

Yours,

Anne