1 . For more than 20 years I have been traveling the world, preferring often to spend a year or two in different countries _______ to just visit as a tourist. It has become a big part of my identity as an adult and shaped _______ I see the world and myself.

My first _______ of this amazing life was when I was 19 years old. I was _______ among a small group of   college classmates to spend a   year abroad. This was long before people could   travel the world _______ through     social media like Facebook, Instagram and Weibo. In order to see a place, you   had to   go there and _______ it   firsthand.

Living abroad can be exciting. I thought it would be _______ because I spoke the language, but I enjoyed the little differences between the British and American culture and language. For   instance, instead of _______ the       British called it “rubbish”; instead of favor they spelled it “favour”.

But there were also _______ that year too. One of my classes was called “Europe Since 1870”. In the U.S., I   would have expected an introductory history class, but in England, I was _______ o have already known the       history; now was the time to analyze it. That _______ I not only had to learn the history as I went along, but also I had to try to write a paper explaining why certain events happened as they did. I know now that I was thrown into the deep _______, in a completely different and far more challenging environment, and it was natural that I wouldn’t understand everything easily. Despite this, I don’t _______ anything about my time in London. Even _______ painful experiences, we learn to grow.

_______ the difficult times made me sad and homesick. But luckily that was not as important as the amazing experience I had getting to know people from all over the world. I met dozens of interesting people from places like France, Greece and Germany in Europe, to Rwanda. Palestine and Australia. Learning how to make friends with people from different cultures and backgrounds was really fun, and these new friends helped put a(n) _______ to     the countries they represented (代表).

As I finished the _______ year, I was torn inside about leaving London after such a life-changing experience.

I learned so much about myself as a young woman and a(n) _______. When I _______ to my college for my          final year, friends and professors saw a(n) _______ me. I had more maturity and self-awareness that I hadn’t had     before. It was just the beginning of a future of world travel and a love of different people and cultures.

2 . Few Americans stay in one place for a lifetime. We______from the city to the suburbs，from high school to college in a different state, from a job in one region to a better job______, from the home where we______our children to the home where we plan to live in______. With each move we are______making new friends, who become part of our new life.

For many of us the summer is a special time for forming new______. Today, millions of Americans go on vacation______, and they go not only to see new sights but also — in those places where they do not feel too______— with the hope of meeting new people. No one really______a vacation trip to produce a close friend, but the beginning of a friendship is possible. Surely in every country people______friendship？

The word “friend” to American people can be______to a wide range of relationships — to someone one has known for a few weeks in a new place, to a close business companion, to a childhood playmate, to a man or woman, to a______colleague. There are real______among these relations for Americans — a friendship may be______, casual, situational or deep and lasting. But to a European, who sees only our surface behavior, the differences are not clear.

As Europeans see it, all kinds of “friends” flow______of Americans' homes with little ceremony. They may be parents of the children's friends, house guests of neighbors, members of a committee, business associates from another town or even another country.______as a guest into an American home, the European visitor finds no______differences. The atmosphere is______. Most people, old and young, are called______first names. Americans’ characteristic openness to different styles of relationship makes it possible for us to find new friends abroad with whom we feel______.