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Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/In the midst of everyday-life activities and problems we feel oppressed and alone. Rushing to school, work, or shopping we pass by many people whom we do not know and we are not interested in their troubles and details of their lives. This relationship acts both ways - other people are also indifferent about our needs and feelings. Even people whom we consider to be our friends, or at least close acquaintances, can hardly help us to suppress the feeling of loneliness and sometimes even alienation. Our problems are either different or we are afraid of being ridiculed; therefore, we preffer not to share the dilemmas with others. Books and magazines seem to be a kind of escape for lonely people. The lonely read them to see someone experiencing the hardship of life, facing the problems they have themselves; they read to know they are not alone.