1 . When I was three, I had a very good friend named Gemma. She was fearless where I was anxious, rebellious where I was conservative, and _________ where I was awkward. She was also entirely imaginary. With Gemma’s support, I almost made it to the top shelf of the bookcase before my parents found me — and “Gemma said it was fine!” did not _________ me from a telling-off (责骂).

I cannot remember when or how I “met” Gemma, and, perhaps sadder still, I do not remember the _________ time I “saw” her. _________ my brain created her, she inspired me to go on adventures I would not have had the confidence to embark upon without her. It _________ me, then, that 72 percent of nursery workers believe children have fewer imaginary friends than they did five years ago, as is shown by a recent survey. This is believed to be a result of _________ screen time.

It is thought that 40 percent of us at one time or another had imaginary friends during our _________. In an essay for Aeon, writer Sophie Elmhirst found that 81 percent of those surveyed had “lost” their imaginary friends after they turned ten, but most of these friendships ended _________. Perhaps imaginary friends simply stay with us for as long as we need them. They move on when our lives become too _________ for our brains to make space to generate their own entertainment.

If you have enjoyed an imaginary friendship, I would guess that you did not __________ sit down to create a perfect pal. They probably arrived as an indication of the thoughts and ideas you never knew you had. In order to be a good __________ to an imaginary friend, you need to be able to make “what if?” into an exciting proposition. When we grow up, we are too quick to finish the sentence with “what if it goes wrong?”

Having grown up, we might not need our imaginary friends anymore, but we could still use a reminder that a little bit of boredom is good for us, and that our brains can create the best ideas when they are left to their own devices. If there are fewer imaginary friends __________ the worlds where our children live, that might lead to a future with fewer artists, writers and problem-solvers. This is a real cause for __________.

As an adult, I think of my fearless, invisible friend Gemma whenever I have to do something that __________ me — usually public speaking, rather than scaling a bookcase. However, whenever I __________ my own expectations and meet myself in a place that I did not think I could quite reach, I can hear my subconscious whispering, “Gemma made me do it.”

2 . On March 11, 2021, World Kidney (肾脏) Day, the actress Raisa wrote on Twitter: “I’ve kept my kidney donation process pretty private. However, I think I’ve got to a point where I feel comfortable in speaking about my experience...” Showing her ________, the singer Gomez responded, writing: “Thank you for blessing me.”

In 2015, Gomez was diagnosed with a terrible disease and soon she became seriously ill. She even had to deal with the mental health problems ________ from her battle with the disease.

Although she was then living with Raisa, Gomez did not tell her long-time friend about the ________ of her health troubles. “I hadn’t asked anything. I knew that she hadn’t been feeling well,” Raisa recalled in an interview. “She couldn’t open a water bottle one day. She then started crying, and I asked, ‘What’s wrong?’” That’s when Gomez revealed that she needed a kidney transplant (移植), but that the waiting list was ________ long. Deeply ________ about her friend’s condition, Raisa decided that she would get tested to see if she could be a ________ for her. Gomez immediately refused, not wanting to make Raisa put her entire career and life ________ for her, but the actress insisted, and amazingly turned ________ to be a match indeed.

With physical and psychological evaluations (评估) taking place over the ________ of a single day rather than the usual six months, Gomez and Raisa began their ________ journey. The surgery was ________ successful. It wasn’t long, however, before Gomez’s new kidney began to turn around inside her body, which then resulted in a second surgery, ________ by a lengthy process of recovery. Gomez, now back to normal, is certain that she ________ her life to Raisa, a true friend indeed.

Both Gomez and Raisa said it was their ________ that guided them through their emotional journey. The pair also hope that sharing their story can have a positive impact on others. “I don’t think what we went through was ________. I just hope this inspires people to believe that there’re really good people in the world,” said Gomez.

3 . You can actually catch a good mood or a bad mood from your friends, according to a recent study in the journal Royal Society Open Science.But that shouldn't stop you from____with pals who are down in the dumps,say the study authors:____,the effect isn't large enough to push you into depression.

The new study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that happiness and sadness-as well as lifestyle and behavioral factors like smoking,drinking,obesity,fitness habits and even the ability to concentrate-can____across social networks, both online and in real life.But while many____studies have only looked at friendship data at one point in time, this is one of the few that measured social and mood changes over time.

The new research involved groups of junior-high and high-school students who took part in___ screenings(筛查） and answered questions about their best friends, many of whom were also enrolled in the study. In total,2,194 students were included in the____,which used a mathematical model to look for connections among friend networks.

Overall,kids whose friends suffered from bad moods were more____to report bad moods themselves- and they were less likely to have improved when they were screened again six months to a year later. When people had more happy friends,____,their moods were more likely to improve over time.

Some symptoms related to depression-like helplessness,tiredness and loss of interest-also seemed to follow this____,which scientists call “social contagion.”But this isn't something that people need to ___,says lead author Robert Eyre,a doctoral student at the University of Warwick. Rather, it's likely just a “____empathetic response that we're all familiar with, and something we recognize by common sense,"he says. In other words,when a friend is going through a rough patch, it makes sense that you'll feel some of their ___,and it's certainly not a reason to stay away.

The study also found that having friends who were clinically depressed did not __     participants' risk of becoming depressed themselves. “Your friends do not put you at risk of illness," says Eyre,"so a good course of action is simply to____them."To boost both of your moods, he suggests doing things together that you both ___-and taking other friends along to further spread those good feelings,too.”

4 . “Just the man I was looking for,” said a voice at Winston’s back.

He turned round. It was his friend Syme, who worked in the Research Department. Syme was a philologist, a specialist in Newspeak. Indeed, he was one of the enormous team of experts now ______ in compiling the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak dictionary.

“How is the dictionary ______?” asked Winston.

“Slowly,” said Syme. “I’m on the adjectives. It’s fascinating.”

He had ______ immediately at the mention of Newspeak.

“The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,” he said. We’re getting the language into its final shape --- the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we’ve finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re ______words --- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the ______. The Eleventh Edition won’t ______ a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.”

His thin dark face had become animated and his eyes had grown almost dreamy.

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. It isn’t only the synonyms, there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other words? A word contains its ______in itself. Take ‘good’, for instance. If you have a word like good, what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well --- better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of ‘good’, what sense is there in having a whole string of ______useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning, or ‘doubleplusgood’ if you want something ______ still. Of course we sue those forms already, but in the final version of Newspeak there’ll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words --- in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston?”

A sort of vapid eagerness fitted across Winston’s face. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain ______ of enthusiasm.

“You haven’t a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,” he said almost sadly. “In your heart you’d prefer to ______ to Oldspeak with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don’t grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year? Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to ______ the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly ______. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not ______ that point. But the process will still be continuing ______ you and I are dead. Every year fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. But in the end there won’t be any need even for that. Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?”