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52 Additional reading 1. Read the text “Want to make friends?”. Give a title to each paragraph. Compare your ideas with your groupmates. WANT TO MAKE FRIENDS? We all want to feel that other people enjoy being with us, and that they seek our company. Close relationships are one of the most important elements to happi- ness. It‘s not always easy to make friends, however. To form a friendship, you must like someone – and you must also be likable . How can you boost the chances that someone will like you? Here are eight strategies – not ways to manipulate people, but to make sure that they see your de- sire to be friendly: 1. _______________. Now, this is no shock, but studies show that the amount of time you smile during a conversation has a direct impact on how friendly you seem to be. Also, people mimic the expressions on the faces they see, so if you smile, you‘re more likely to be smiled at. 2. _________________ . Most people get more pleasure from wowing you with their humor than from being wowed by your humor. 3. _________________ . Lean toward people, nod, say ―Uh-huh‖, turn your body to face the other person‘s body. Don‘t turn away, cross your arms, answer in monosyllables, or scan the room (or look at your mobile phone!) as the other person talks. 4. ________________ . What you say about other people influences how people see you. If you describe a groupmate as brilliant and charismatic, your ac- quaintance may to associate you with those qualities. If you describe a groupmate as arrogant and stubborn, those traits will stick to you. So watch what you say. 5. ________________ . A sense of humor will make you more likable and ap- proachable. However, keep it light. You‘ll make others uncomfortable if you run your- self down too much 6. ________________ . Because of the phenomenon of ―emotional contagion,‖ people catch the emotions of other people, and they prefer to catch a good, energet- ic mood. 7. _________________ . We‘re much more apt to like someone if we think that person likes us. Look for ways to signal that you enjoy a person‘s company. 8. __________________. Studies suggest that we decide how close a rela- tionship we‘ll have with a new acquaintance within the first ten minutes of meeting that person. So make a big effort to be openly friendly the first time you meet some- one. Abridged from https://slate.com/human-interest/2009/04/eight-tips-to-make-yourself-likable- and-win-more-friends.html