Your friend tells you that our orbit is so special that it is at just the right distance from the sun for us to be at the right temperature for life to flourish. he says that if we were even ten miles closer to the sun, we would burn up. if we were ten miles farther from the sun, we would freeze. is your friend correct?

YES

Explanation: the Earth is at the right distance, it is believed that the distance between the Earth and the sun is about 150million kilometers. If at 150million kilometers,we are having the level of Temperature that we have where certain regions are going up to 40degrees Celsiusand other places are as low as -10degrees Celsius. Going closer with up to 10miles means the Temperature will further go up to about 70-100degrees depending on where you are at a given time, and moving far 10miles away means the ten will reduce further will cause people to freeze. The Earth is a sphere and the distance from the sun is not regular.