3 . With a two-year-old behind me and fliers in my hand, I knocked on another door in my neighborhood. I had volunteered to spread the _______ about some changes at the local primary school, so I was excited to see a _______ with a baby in her arm and a preschooler tightly wrapped around her leg.

Within seconds, I realized I needed to _______ my rusty Spanish to connect with this mom. That initial conversation explained the lonely, desperate look in her eyes. I wrote my phone number on the flier and told her to _______ if she ever wanted to walk to the park with the kids.

I hadn’t _______ much about Maria until a month later when she called. Many walks around the neighborhood later, I _______ more details about her life that offered me some viewpoints about my own.

One day I sat at Maria’s kitchen table and shared some of my own family’s _______. Her eyes got big, saying “I thought I was the only one with problems.” I thought my stress was _______, but from her viewpoint, my life seemed to be a pretty package from the outside. By _______ the details of my life, I was able to give her the same gift of viewpoints she had been giving me.

Friendship can be discovered in unexpected places, as long as we find common ground with those who ________ might seem different.

5 . Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and _________ us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I rose to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a _________?” I laughed and _________ responded “Why not!”

“Why are you in college at such a(n) _________, innocent age?” I asked. She _________ replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get _________, and have a couple of kids…” “No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have _________ her to be taking on this challenge at her age. “I always _________ having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me. After class we walked to the student union building and _________ a chocolate milkshake. We became __________ friends. Every day for the next three months, we would __________ together after class and talk __________. I was always listening to this “time machine” as she shared her __________ and experience with me. Over the __________ of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she __________ made friends wherever she went.

At the year’s end Rose finished the college __________ she had begun all those years ago. One week after __________ Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute (致敬) to the wonderful woman who taught __________ that it’s never too __________ to be all you can possibly be. When you finish reading this, please remember, growing older is mandatory (强制性的). Growing up is __________.

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.

9 . On my first day in America, I was excited, but nervous as well. It was my dear neighbor Susan who helped me   _________ my new life far away from home.

There was a knock at the door. When I _________ it. Susan came in with a homemade apple ple. She hugged me and said, “Wow, you   _________ be the precious (珍贵的) Chinese dull (娃娃)!”

With a big smile, she   _________, “Alice, I am sure you have never tried a home-made apple pie before! You are going to _________ it so much!”

To be honest, I was greatly surprised by this welcome from a _________. And the apple pie made me _________.

Susan was very helpful to me.

When I was thinking about the clothes to wear on Halloween, she suggested I _________like a traditional Chinese girl. “I happen to have a traditional Chinese dress and guess _________, I’m a great make-up artist!” She said. Susan did not hide (隐藏) her excitement, when she pushed me to the __________ to examine our work after an hour of hard work. The clothes fit me perfectly! I am sure that I stood out from the crowd that Halloween, and I am __________ for her help.

My first Thanksgiving was another highlight (亮点). __________ the festival morning, I was surprised to find a gift box in my front yard. There was a note on it: “Hello Alice, I’m the Thanksgiving bunny (兔子)! Enjoy your __________!” I looked around and caught Susan looking at me from her porch (走廊). Seeing that she had been __________, she hurriedly picked up a newspaper and pretended (假装) to __________ it. I couldn’t help __________. When I walked up to her, she said, “ __________ was not me. It was the Thanksgiving bunny!” Susan is such a __________ person; She is the American above all others I need to thank.

I saw that the spirit of the Chinese saying, that “Neighbors carry more__________ than distant relatives”, is alive and well in America. Susan filled my heart with   __________ and joy, just as angels do.

10 . 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.