Researchers used information from the Framingham Study, which began in 1948. The Framingham Study gathers information about physical and mental( 心 理 的 ) health, personal behavior and diet. At first, the study involved about 5,000 people in the American state of Massachusetts. Now, more than 12,000 persons are taking part.

Information from the Framingham Study showed earlier that happiness can spread from person to person. So can behaviors like littering and the ability to stop smoking.

University of Chicago psychologist (心理学家) John Cacioppo led the recent study. He and other researchers tried to show how often people felt lonely. They found that the feeling of loneliness spread through social groups.

Having a social connection with a lonely person increased the chances that another person would feel lonely. In fact, a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. A friend of that person was 25% more likely. The researchers say this shows that a person could indirectly be affected by someone’s loneliness.

The effect was strongest among friends. Neighbors were the second most affected group. The effect was weaker on husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. The researchers also found that loneliness spread more easily among women than men.

The New York Times newspaper reports that, on average, people experience feelings of loneliness about 48 days a year. It also found that every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent, or two and a half fewer lonely days.

Loneliness has been something to do with health problems like sadness and sleeping difficulties. The researchers believe that knowing the causes of loneliness could help in reducing it.

The study suggests that people can take steps to stop the spread of loneliness. They can do this by helping individuals they know who may be experiencing loneliness. The result can be helpful to the whole social group.

It is rightly said that one can share any secret with a true friend. He may know your deepest fears and weaknesses and yet will never take advantage of you. However, keeping a friend’s secrets to yourself and not telling the world is what makes the bond grow strong and last forever. You need to develop trust and mutual understanding before you start sharing secrets with each other. With friends, secret talks never seem to end and it can get really amusing to know what has been going on in your friend’s mind.

There is a certain time in life especially from the teenage years when one starts having a personal periphery in life and parents are excluded from it. It is because there are certain things that they can’t understand and we can’t discuss with them. That is when friends become the best secret sharers. They are the ones to whom one reveals one’s feelings and best kept secrets.

It is a general belief that only girls share secrets. But boys have their own secrets that they discuss with only closest friends. The secret talks can range from relationships, talks about fights with parents, secret activities and anything that is not supposed to be known to others! If you think secrets are limited to only teenagers, get your facts right! Secrets can be shared at any age and there is no hard and fast rule that secrets are shared only among youngsters.

Sharing secrets with a friend is not just fun, but it also helps to develop a lasting trust in one another. Sometimes, sharing secrets will tell you more about the person. You will come to know whether your friend is reliable and trustworthy and whether it is worth sharing your secrets with them. You can call it a test of friendship.

About five years ago I started at a new school when my family moved to Iowa. I was just a little excited, but I worried I would never fit in with (适应) the other sixth graders.

Lucy, a girl in my class, who I thought was not ready for change, didn’t like me from the start. In fact, I was sure she hated me. I could tell she thought I was a fool.

My teacher made us sit by each other for the last term. Lucy was surprised that I didn’t wear make­up (化妆). I didn’t exactly look like the coolest girl. But, I kept smiling at her, though she rolled her eyes, and I kept telling her she looked beautiful, even when she was angry.

Finally, Lucy let me talk to her, even in sight of her “cool” friends. She started telling me how beautiful I looked. I still remember that first time when she smiled at me saying that, and I smiled right back, telling her thanks. Lucy invited me over to her house for a party, and talked to me all the time instead of her other friends.

I may move to Arizona after that, but I will never forget Lucy. She was a great friend. I still smiled at Lucy when she made fun of me. I’m not stupid, I didn’t think she was right in doing those things, but I still put up with (忍受) it. And we became great friends.

About two weeks ago, I read a sentence by Abraham Lincoln: “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” Immediately, I smiled, thinking of Lucy.