Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 6...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 6 to 13.

Our friendship was forged in a small, windowless office where we worked as a two-person team. In that cramped space, we were allies, a united front against our megalomaniac boss. We bonded over lukewarm coffee and a shared desire to be anywhere else. Our conversations, once confined to work, soon began to encompass our personal lives. We became privy to each other’s emotional hardships, aspirations, family conflicts, and financial anxieties.

She was the first person I called when I secured a new job; I was the first she called when she got engaged. For years, our victories felt shared, often treated as team accomplishments, celebrated with impromptu dinners. Our bond was a welcome respite from the sharp-edged professional world and the sometimes-lonely realities of city life. There was no envy, only a genuine, reciprocal joy in seeing the other person advance. Our friendship was a sanctuary, a rare space of unconditional support in a world that felt increasingly hard.

But as we moved through our late 20s and into our 30s, a subtle shift occurred. The promotions, engagements and pregnancies that once prompted joint celebration began to feel like points on a scoreboard. Our easy camaraderie was replaced by a quiet, unspoken competition. Phone calls became less frequent. When we did talk, our conversations were filled with careful omissions. We curated the versions of our lives we presented to each other, highlighting the successes and concealing the struggles.

The intimacy we once had was built on vulnerability, on the shared conviction that we were in it together. But “it” — life — was no longer a shared foxhole. It had become a ladder, and we were acutely aware of our positions on it. The tragedy is that I don't believe either of us wanted this. The competition was not a conscious choice but an involuntary symptom of the ambient pressures around us, a reflection of the societal expectation to always be moving forward. We had simply forgotten how to be vulnerable with each other, and in doing so, forfeited the essential quality that made our friendship worthwhile.

(Adapted from The New York Times)

Question 6: Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a personal subject the two friends shared during the early stages of their relationship?
A. Aspirations B. Family reunions C. Emotional hardships D. Financial anxieties