I think a close friend is someone you get on well with，who helps you when you have problems, who gives you advice，and who always has time for you. I didn't use to have many close friends when I was at school because I was very shy，but now I have several. They are all women. I think it's difficult to have a close friend of the opposite sex（异性）.

---Marie

I think a close friend is someone who you've known for a long time，and who you still get on with. They have similar hobbies to you so you can do things together. I've got three close friends who I was at middle school with and we often go out together （without our parents of course）. We often go camping，play football，or walk outside in the open air．

---David

I'm not sure how to answer the question because I don't really have any close friends. I know a lot of people but mainly through work，and the social occasions（场合） when we meet are business dinners, things like that. I think if you come from a really close family，friends are a bit unnecessary. I like spending my free time with my family．

---Richard

For me close friends are the people you spend your free time with. I go out at weekends with a group of people，and they are all my close friends. They're also people who live near me. I don't think you can have close friends at a distance because you need to be able to see each other often. But I don't think you need to be doing the same things. I mean I'm at school but none of my friends are．

---Anna

The Friends of Charles Dickens

Dickens was born in 1812. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was thrown into debtors' prison. The miserable treatment of children and the institution of the debtors' jail became   topics of several of Dickens^, novels。.

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

Although twelve years younger than Dickens Wilkie Collins became one of Dickens best friends. Collins was a popular novelist who developed the mystery novel style. The Moonstone is one of his best. He and Dickens wrote The Frozen Deep . Wilkie was the son of the painter William Collins. He was born in London and lived in Italy and France as a child.

John Elliotson (1791-1868)

Elliotson was Dickens's family doctor for many years and thus they became good friends. Elliotson was an early advocate for the use of the stethoscope (听诊器). He also believed in the use of acupuncture (针灸).

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Poe was an American author best known for his poems and short fiction. The Fall of the House of Usher and The Murders in the Rue Morgue are two of his most popular works Dickens and Poe's friendship began in Philadelphia while Dickens was on his first tour of the United States. They talked about literature and seemed to enjoy one another's company However，two years later Poe broke off the relationship because he was angry about an article on American poetry. The article was written by Thackeray, but Poe believed that Dickens was behind the article.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

William Makepeace Thackeray was a novelist His best known work is Vanity Fair. He was also a friend of Charles Dickens. While Dickens and Thackeray were friends, the relation ship wasn't always smooth. They had several serious quarrels. One quarrel involved Dickens siding with Edmund Yates after Yates insulted Thackeray.