1 . My 16-month-old daughter jumped onto the floor again, after climbing onto the low windowsill. She made it many times a day—it is her own Mount Qomolangma. With a sense of _________, she ran into my arms, laughing. I was almost crying as I _________ her.

I felt I was a(n)_________. No one had prepared me for working from home daring the COVID-19 pandemic while _________ a wild, fearless kid. I felt so sad. I wasn’t _________ enough and I wasn’t a good mother. I was defeated by life.

Then came a sound from my cellphone. After getting my _________ child back on her feet and, watching her go to climb the windowsill, I read the _________: “Watching you be a mommy has been my favorite. It brings me so much     _______! How talented you are, and how kind and funny you are!”

And immediately, my friend Megan got me out of a complete _________. This was exactly what I needed to ________, at the exact moment I felt so ________ . She rebuilt my confidence and __________ me that motherhood is my mission, my happiness, and my greatest achievement, even when it’s __________.

Sometimes the greatest kindnesses are some words of __________ at just the right time. Therefore, I headed back to Baby Qomolangma, ready for her next __________.

2 . It was an extremely busy day. I was so tired of my life that I was getting a little ________ with myself and everyone around me. On my way home, I ________ my old friend Paul in the street. He looked happy and ________ me to his home for dinner. We had not seen each other for many years, so ________ I was tired I accepted his invitation.

As we entered the door of his house, Paul started ________ “I have a dream, a song to sing, to help you ________ everything.” I felt ________ his behavior, but in no time I understood. Two ________ walked to Paul and hugged him. They couldn’t walk ________ or speak clearly, but their faces were full of ________ and sang the same song.

We talked about our ________ and work, and I learned from Paul that his daughters were born as “special children”. They were mentally changed. Their mother ________ years ago. Paul was both mother and father to his beautiful daughters. But Paul said he was ________ that the little angels were together with him and that ________ could stop him from living actively.

That night, we ________ a lot, and his happy smiles made my anger and ________ fade. I forgot how many times I   ________ about my life and my work, but Paul’s life was a(n) ________ to me. The man smiled at his life and treated any trouble as a________of life. I owe my thanks to Paul, for he taught me to deal with life ________ and move on.

3 . I met Nancy two years ago and we immediately became friends. Rarely would a day go by when I wouldn’t see her outside of work. I was ________ by her intelligence and sweetness. In the beginning, she was very supportive of my efforts and made me feel ________ about myself. After about a year, she told me that she is an alcoholic. This ________ prevented me from wanting to be her friend, but after she ________ that she is such a person, she became more ________ getting drunk around me when I visited her home. She would call and text me nightly asking me to come to her house, and I would ________every time. I felt obligated (有义务的) as her ________ to be with her when she was completely drunk. I was partly worried that something ________   would happen to her, and part of me was also very ________ , and I needed to have someone to care about me.

Last year, the cold, hard truth ________ me. I would always be there for her when she was drunk and help her use the bathroom, or walk up the stairs. I was letting her know I was OK with her alcoholism. I would listen to her problems and respond ________ advice. One night my dad was in the ________ because of heart problems. I was sad and anxious. I ________ Nancy, but she was so extremely drunk that she couldn’t even understand what I was saying. That night I learned this relationship was completely ________ . I could comfort her, but I couldn’t expect to be comforted in return.

She has chosen not to seek help for her alcoholism. ________, I need to end my relationship with her.

4 . I joined a language exchange program online last year and had the chance to meet Lucy, a girl from England. We gradually became ________ with each other. At first, it was ________ to talk to someone I had never met before, but as time went by, our conversations continued ________ .

Being a teenager could be challenging, but having someone like Lucy, who ________ me even from thousands of miles away, made it easier. However, little did I know that she had been fighting with depression for many years. When she finally opened up and shared her ________ with me, I was both shocked and grateful that she ________ me enough to tell me that.

From that day on, I tried to ________ her regularly and encouraged her to seek professional help. Finally, Lucy started seeing a doctor, and then she made progress in ________ her condition. But later, with increased learning tasks, we both became ________, so our conversations became less frequent. One Sunday night, I surfed the Internet and found that Lucy had cleaned up all her social media posts. I was anxious and tried to ________ her, but there was no response. I completely ________ her. Weeks turned into months, and I gave up the ________ of hearing from her again. Surprisingly, Lucy sent me an email one day. In her message, she apologised and explained her sudden ________. Also, she thanked me for my help during her darkest moments. Her words touched my heart, and I realized the influence our ________ had made on both of us.

Even though we are ________ by distance and time zones, our friendship remains strong and continues to thrive.

5 . Do you know Mike, my best friend? Maybe you will say, “Yes, I know him very well. He is very ________ . He never studies hard and isn’t good at all the subjects.” But you are wrong. It seems that he has ________ a lot. He didn’t use to like to study. But now he works ________ hard. In the past, he used to watch TV and play computer games very late at night. He used to get up at eight o’clock in the morning and hurry to school ________ breakfast. At school, he didn’t use to listen to the ________ carefully. He didn’t use to do ________ . He always copied others’ papers in the tests. But now he doesn’t come to school late. He gets up very early and goes to exercise in the morning. He walks to school after breakfast. He says that he must look after his _________. At school, he often ________ with a group and asks other students for help when he has _________. His classmates usually help him with his trouble. He has made great ________ this term and he got an A in a test last week.

6 . When Eugenie George first heard that her friend passed a financial exam, her heart sank. She’d ______ the same test weeks earlier.

“Envy was eating me up,” recalls George. But anyway she ______ her friend. “And I told her I failed and admitted I was ______,” she says. George knew that being ______ would ease her envy, but she was surprised that it also enabled her to ______ her friend’s happiness and experience her own in turn.

Finding ______ in another person’s good fortune is what social scientists call freudenfreude, the great joy we feel when someone else succeeds, ______ it doesn’t directly involve us. Freudenfreude is like a kind of social______, says Catherine Chambliss, a professor of psychology. It makes relationships “closer and more enjoyable.”

Too often, we think our friends ______ us most during their hard times: a job ______, getting divorced. In fact, how friends ______ our joy is even more important for us than how they respond to our ______. Too often, we think of joy passively. We see it as something that come to us, instead of something we can ______. While it can be difficult in practice, freudenfreude can lift us up and ______ our day. So celebrating our friends’ ______ is a win-win to us all.

7 . Each morning, I hear my phone ring around 8: 00 am. Instead of _________ it, I let it go to voicemail. Anyone who is not familiar with me will think I am _________ the caller and usually say, “Aren’t you going to respond to that?”

I listen to the message when I have time to relax. It is a _________ from my friend Tina. After listening to her talk, I call her cell and _________ a similar message.

The _________ started ten years ago when I came to a crossroads in my life. Tina was my advisor. I told her my confusion and she gave me some helpful _________. We finally came up with a(n) _________ to keep me on track. We decided to call each other daily.

“Let’s set some guidelines to these calls,” she _________. The guidelines for our calls were simple: We’d leave a list of what we are grateful for. We’d discuss three good things we did for ourselves the day before.

Like anything else, it took a while to _________ the calls. It was a new kind of relationship for both of us. But after ten years, it comes as __________ as breathing.

We’re a team, and when one of us __________, the other is always there to pick her up. I will put in that extra call and talk one-on-one when I’m __________ about her. Tina does the same for me. I know I can __________ her.

Anything is possible when you have the right people there to __________ you. I’m one of the __________ people on Earth to have a system like this.

8 . Zafar and Nadeem had been great friends since childhood. They used to go to the same secondary school nearby and _________ there and back together. They didn’t always see eye to eye, but _________ they had arguments about school as they were both _________ and wanted to get the best marks in their class.

One _________ afternoon, Nadeem, who had got the highest mark in a test that day, _________ on talking about it. Zafar couldn’t bear it. Anger _________ him because he thought Nadeem was only doing it to make him feel bad. Finally, he slapped (用手掌打) Nadeem in the face. Nadeem was _________ at first, but then he picked up a stick, and wrote in the sand: “Today my friend Zafar slapped me.”

The pair of friends carried on their way home in _________. As they got closer to the river, a section of the river bank _________ because of the rain and the water carried both boys into the river. Nadeem couldn’t swim but Zafar was there by his side __________ him to safety. After Nadeem had calmed down, he took a __________ stone and wrote on a big __________: “Today my friend Zafar saved my life.”

Zafar asked him why, Nadeem replied, “Writing in the sand __________ quickly. When our friends do something bad to us, we should forget it quickly. But when friends do good things and show us __________, we should always remember it, just as the writing on a rock __________ forever.”

9 . On the April morning I found out about Lucy’s mother, it rained. I didn’t know what kind of cancer Mrs. Hastings had until later, _______ I knew her condition was very serious.

I love Mr. and Mrs. Hastings almost as much as I love my own parents, and Lucy is my best friend. But I didn’t want to go to school that day. And I _______ didn’t want to see Lucy.

What could I possibly say to her? What do people say to their friends at such a time? I tried every trick I knew to get out of going to school.

But Mom _______. “You have a history test this morning, Kristin,” she said, looking at me as if she’d crawled into my mind and knew I was just making _______. Then she smiled. “Be sure to stay close to Lucy, especially today, because that poor girl is going to need your strength.”

Strength? What was Mother talking about? I didn’t even know what to say to my best friend. I hid out in the choir room between classes _______ avoiding Lucy, but she was never out of my thoughts. I kept trying to come up with something _______ to say to her because I really wanted to get it right.

Lucy and I had last-period English in Mrs. Green’s room. I’d avoided meeting her all day, I was going to have to face her last period, and I still didn’t have a(n) _______. However, Mrs. Green said, “Kristin, Lucy Hastings is your best friend, and she is coming here in a few minutes to get her lesson assignments.”

My heart tightened into a hard knot and I _______ inwardly. I still didn’t know what to say to Lucy, and time was running out.

I rushed out of the classroom, racing down the hall and out the front door of school. It had stopped raining, and the air smelt clean and fresh. In the distance I _______ someone coming toward me, stumbling across the campus. I knew it was Lucy ________ I couldn’t see her face. As she was approaching, I noticed how Lucy’s shoulders shook with every step she took. She must be crying. The rain came down ________. Raindrops mingled with my tears. Lucy’s heart was breaking, and I wasn’t doing a thing to help her!

As I drew nearer to her, my throat tightened, making it impossible to ________. I prayed for ________ and forced myself to move forward, ________ outstretched. “Oh. Kristin!” Lucy cried. “I was hoping it was you.” We hugged then. It was then that I learned something that I might never have grasped in any other way. I’d been always focusing on myself: What should I do? How should I act? What would I say to Lucy? But when we finally came face to face, I forgot myself and centered on Lucy and her needs. Only when I did that was I able to share Lucy’s grief and let her know that she was ________ and that I really cared.

10 . By the time I was a junior at Yale, I’d already met everyone I cared to know. I also knew those I didn’t want to know, including Maxey. He and I were like planets in different ________ .

Everything changed dramatically when we had a field trip for a weekend. Although I was________, I could get along well with others except Maxey who still made me________. I couldn’t think of anything to say to him. When he walked up to me and stuck out his hand, I just ________ it quickly. We stood awkwardly for a few minutes. When someone tried to get my attention, Maxey politely ________. That last morning, when we discussed how to return home, he insisted I ride home on the back of his motorcycle. I said I thought it was a terrible ________ and I wanted to refuse, but Maxey ________ a helmet at me. ” I wanted to give you a________. You didn’t seem to like me. I want you to like me.” he said. Maxey started up the________ and we roared out of the driveway. The bike ________down the highway. I________ my arms around him and held on for dear________. Maybe our friendship started from that day.

We were now both 60, but my ________ with him remained strong. I was sure if I was in ________, Maxey would be there for me. I was ________sure that if he wanted my help, I would give it without hesitation.