Phong: In my school, everyone has a few different groups of friends, such as in our own class. I used to be rather popular in my class, if being popular meant that most of the girls in my class were my friends and generally liked me. Then I fell out of this friendship with my “best friend” because there were stuff about each other we didn’t like, I guess, and we just stopped hanging out together. After this, I started hanging out with this other clique in class I was quite close with. However, this clique was not really popular in our class. The clique was more on the "losers” side, although individually I guess most people were okay with them. As time went by, I found myself feeling more and more embarrassed to be in the same clique permanently as them. I was not the most popular student in my school, but I think I was more on the popular side because I knew quite a lot of people in our level and I was on the football team at school, where I think being in a sport made us more on the popular side. Furthermore, I felt more and more unappreciated in my clique. I didn't think they really appreciated my presence, and it feels like my being there or not made only a little difference to them, although I'm not sure if this is true. They also always left me out in conversations, which I really hate, and this makes me feel really sad.
Counsellor: I think you should be around people you like or want to be. The group being unpopular is not a reason to leave them. If you are good enough then, you can make the group popular. Choose friends who make you feel comfortable. Don't move in groups based on popularity or you may never have people who truly appreciate you. Make good friends even if they are a few. Don't compare your group with others or people may not trust you.
Task 1. Decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F).
1. Phong broke up with his best friend because they had different tastes. _____
2. Being popular in his school meant most of the girls in his school were his friends and liked him.
_____
3. Phong felt unhappy because the group he was in was not popular in his class. _____
4. Being in a school sport team may make a student become popular. _____
5. Being present with other members of the group or not didn’t make any difference to Phong. _____
6. The counsellor thought that a member could make the group popular with his own talents. _____
7. You shouldn’t join a group only due to its popularity. _____
8. The counsellor advised Phong to join in the group which truly appreciated him. _____
Task 2: Match the underlined words in the text with the definition.
1. stuff (n) _____ A. a small group of people with the same interests
2. hang out (phr v) _____ B. not include someone
3. clique (n) _____ C. a thing or group of things that one is talking about
4. leave someone out (phr v) _____ D. to recognize the good values of someone
5. appreciate (v) _____ E. to spend a lot of time in a place
