Narrator: Listen to a conversation between two students.  

Student 1(male): Hey, Denise. Are you ready for spring break?

Student 2(female): You bet I am Charlie. I’m just not sure where I’ll be going yet. My roommates and I have been talking about going to the beach in the Bahaman Islands since last spring break, but it isn’t exactly cheap, and only Pat and I were able to save up enough money to go. These last few weeks Bo worked extra shifts at the restaurant, but he still couldn’t make enough money. We all feel really bad because we all wanted to go together. I don’t think we could go without him.

Student 1: Well, can’t you let him borrow some money so that you can all go together?

Student 2: I think we could do that. If me and Pat both pitched in and lent him some money, he might have enough. But I don’t know if he’d want to borrow money from us. He doesn’t usually do that.

Student 1: Well, maybe you just need to find another place to go then. If you all already have some money saved up, you should be able to find a closer, cheaper destination for spring break, right?

Student 2: I suppose we could, but it really just wouldn’t be the same.

Student 1: You should look around. Maybe you can find a place like the Bahamas, just without the Bahamas price.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the question.

 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Answer

I think that the best solution would be to find a cheaper place to go. Denise says that everybody has been saving money up for a while, but only Bo doesn’t have enough. But if he has been saving money up, he should have some, at least. The three really wanted to go together, so they should just find some place in all of their price ranges and just go to the Bahamas some other time. I think this situation is better than lending Bo money because it is not always a good idea to lend friends money. Sometimes, very close friends will think they do not need to pay back a loan from a friend. Also, lending money to someone is the best way to cause problems in the relationship. I have had several friends who lent money to other friends and that money was never repaid. It has been years since the money was lent out, and they never received it back. I myself have lent money to other friends, and it caused problems in our relationship. The only way to fix a relationship after you lend money out is to just forget about it and say goodbye to the money. Also, to take a vacation to the Bahamas would be rather expensive. Maybe the loan would have to be a big loan.