Subject:  Can you help?   From:  Fran

Dear Knowledgeable,

My best friend, Mei, has a problem. There is a really important English speech contest for our whole city next month. Our classmates want her to represent the class in the school contest. Everyone is sure she will win. It’s probably true. Mei is very clever, and can speak English really well. In fact, she always comes top in the school exams. The problem is that she’s very shy. She doesn’t want to let her friends down, but she’s terrified of speaking in front of other people. She’s my friend, so she can tell me that she’s shy. But she can’t tell everyone that. I don’t think they would believe her. I can’t think of any good advice to give her, but you always come up with good solutions to people’s problems. What do you think I should tell Mei? What do you think I should tell the rest of the students?                                                           Fran