1. The Tapestry of Friendships
By Ellen Goodman

2. Building vocabulary A. Expensive car chase scene.
B. blood-and-gore, violent scene.
C. moved steadily across.
D. special way of looking at things.
E. the perspective that films present on society.
F. changed its main idea.
G. Films.

3. Building vocabulary
H. a film-making technique which attempts to present situations as realistically as actual life; literally, from the French, “cinema of truth”.
I. lots of film.
J. story lines.
K. in film.

4. Building vocabulary 2. A. solid B. strength C. dejectedness
D. avant garde
E. ethereally
F. admirable
G. vigorous

5. Understanding the writer’s ideas
1. Nothing extraordinary was resolved or stated outright. She is actually being somewhat appreciative, in that she is implicitly comparing this to the ending of most “male” films, which she would consider more hard edged and obvious.
2. Most likely, Goodman herself.

6. Understanding the writer’s ideas
3. A shift in emphasis from “male buddy movies” to “female friendship flicks.” She feels this is a real shift, a reflection of a social change in the concept of friendship. At the beginning of par. 4, she states directly: “This wasn’t just another binge of trendiness….”

7. Understanding the writer’s ideas
5. A popular “pop psych” self-help book entitled I’m OK, You’re OK and the Old West “Shootout at the OK Corral.” In other words, the intersection between extremes of macho and sensitivity.

8. Understanding the writer’s ideas
6. The fact that males acted as “buddies,” close but always somewhat aloof at the same time; women acted as “friends,” sharing things more deeply and fully. She seems to prefer greatly female “friendship.”
7. A kind of weaving together, overlapping and interlacing.

9. Understanding the writer’s ideas
8. One set of rules for men, another for women.
9. She calls buddies a “fine” (read OK) life-companion, but a friend (quoting Santayana) is at the core of what makes us human.

10. Understanding the writer’s techniques
1. The fact that the women-women friendships and men-men friendships are qualitatively different. The sentence which comprises par. 6: (a) women as friends and (b) men as buddies.
2. Intro: pars. 1-6; body: pars. 7-17; conclusion: pars

11. Understanding the writer’s ideas
3. It pulls the reader into the essay and creates an atmosphere of interest, although it does not specifically introduce the subject.
4. a. The weaving together of many different qualities of friendship
b. The vital force that bonds them.
Both allude to the blending of friendships and values

12. Understanding the writer’s ideas
5. It creates a little distance from the author, perhaps so this would not sound so much like a personal complaint, but more like a widespread social issue affecting many.
6. ISR. (Actually a good argument could be made for any of the purposes.)

13. Understanding the writer’s ideas
7. Alternating dominates (she continuously juxtaposes definition and examples for buddies and friends), but at some points she also uses a combination.
8. Any intelligent reader.

14. Understanding the writer’s ideas
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
9. (a) Ernest Hemingway, , great American fiction writer who is also known for his “macho” pursuits—hunting, male bonding, war, and so on; (b) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, , an English poet and controversial man of letters, known especially for “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”;

15. Understanding the writer’s ideas
(c) Sinclair Lewis’s novel (1992) of an average American (male) destroyed by conformity; and 9d) George Santayana, , an American philosopher whose main thesis was that the mind and its vision of beaury are responsive to a biological context.

16. Understanding the writer’s ideas
10. It gets her point across crisply, but some readers might ask for more development.
11. Mainly in the film discussion which opens the essay. Also, concerning the woman lawyer who makes the “chicken call” (13) and the male friend who seems surprised when asked about having dinner with his own male friend (17)

17. Understanding the writer’s ideas12
Par. 8: “Buddies faced adversity together, but friends faced each other.”
“Buddies seemed to ‘do’ things together; friends simply ‘were’ together.”
Par. 11: “Buddies hang tough together; friends hang onto each other.”

18. Understanding the writer’s ideas
12.
Par. 12: “Buddies try to keep the worst from each other; friends confess it.”
Par. 14: “Buddies seek approval. But friends seek acceptance.”
These are quick encapsulations of her ideas and continually reinforce the main thesis. Again, some further development might have helped.

19. Understanding the writer’s ideas
13. By the continual use of short opposition and the words “buddy” and “friend.”
14. The question in quotation marks are her male friends’ responses to her questions, thus creating the feel of a dialogue and allowing us to understand from their tone what their attitudes are.

20. Understanding the writer’s ideas
15. (a) and (b). This seems an effective conclusion which offers good closure for the essay.