My wife and I used to feel that it was     1     (possible) to be a true friend to someone    2     name we didn’t know. How wrong we were! A few     3     (year) of Sunday-morning bus trips through the city with     4     same group of “nameless” people have changed our thinking. Before the bus takes off, we all join     5     a conversation: where’s the silent woman who always sits up front and never responds to our greetings? Here she comes. Her worn clothing suggests she doesn’t have much money to spare,     6     she always takes an extra cup of coffee for the driver.

Then, one evening, we went to a fish restaurant. We were shown to a table next to someone     7     (sit) alone. It was the woman from the bus. We greeted her as usual, but this time her face softened, then a shy smile. When she     8     (speak), the words escaped difficultly from her lips. All at once we realized     9     she hadn’t talked with us before. Talking was hard for her. Over dinner, she told us her story. We got along very well and became friends. Our fish had never tasted     10     (good), and when we parted—we shared names.

There are many benefits of friendship.     1     (general) speaking, close friendships have three “fruits”.

The first fruit is the peace that     2     (come) from sharing with friends our joy, sadness, success and failure. Friendship has a double advantage—happiness takes     3     a greater meaning and a trouble shared becomes a trouble halved!

The second fruit is the better understanding and judgement that may be achieved through conversations with friends. We often find it easier     4     (recognize) other people’s weakness than our own. As     5     result, our judgments might be one-sided if we are guided only by our own feelings. Also,     6     we want to talk our problems over with a friend, we have to put our thoughts into words first, which helps make our thoughts clearer.

The third fruit is the help that a friend may offer in many different ways. Friends can help us achieve anything     7     we want during life and perhaps, even after     8     (die).

Finally,     9     (enjoy) the company of a crowd is not the same as being with friends. Friends should     10     (choose) carefully. In this way, we can better walk the path of life.