1 . Being vulnerable (脆弱的) is not a choice. It’s a _________ in our life. What we do with vulnerability can either open doors to deeper connections, or build walls that _________ progress and fulfillment.

Vulnerability _________ the state of being exposed to the possibility of being harmed, either physically or emotionally. It’s part of human _________ because we are vulnerable in some way at all times. We are vulnerable to viruses, accidents, misunderstandings and _________ caused by whatever reasons. The only choice we really have is whether to _________ it or not.

When some people _________ that they have no vulnerability, they are hard to develop meaningful social connections with others. They are just _________. No one likes to spend much time with people who are dishonest or _________ to open up their feelings. Most of the time, a great friendship starts by __________ each other’s vulnerability.

Indeed, it’s not easy for us to admit our vulnerability in front of others. In order to protect ourselves, we tend to struggle with __________. But in fact, when we are vulnerable with people, we have signaled that they can also __________ share their anxieties. And we don’t have to worry too much about the results because a far more common reaction of people is to respect our __________ instead of laughing at us. Under this shared circumstance, we become less __________ by vulnerability and also we __________ a relationship.

2 . I was talking to some friends while standing in line in the cafeteria at my middle school. As I started to share a funny story, my friend Elizabeth _______ me. “Coco! Coco!” she called out. Everyone laughed. This is so _______, I thought. I felt a little bit uncomfortable.

However, I never wanted to ask what “Coco” meant. I _______ it was a code word for a cute boy. Elizabeth was one of the girls that everyone wanted to be friends with. I felt _______ to be friends with her. Later, I noticed that Elizabeth often said bad things about other kids. I would have never said those things about someone, but to fit in, I _______ when Elizabeth said them.

One day, a classmate stopped by my locker and said to me, “‘Coco’ means Elizabeth thinks you’re being _______. It’s really mean.” My eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t _______ it.

The next day, at lunchtime, I sat beside Macy, who was sitting with another two girls and who had always seemed nice, _______ that she didn’t know about Coco. “You know Elizabeth is mean, right?” My heart _______. She knew. Before I could respond, Macy said, “You didn’t ________ to be treated that way, and nobody else does either.” I smiled and then talked to my new friends with ________. We laughed a lot, and no one interrupted with a mean code word.

Most adolescents are attempting to ________ who they are and who they want to be. The word Coco will always serve as a(n) ________ that I need to stay ________ to myself and never compromise my values to be friends with someone. Because with ________ friends, I won’t have to.

4 . We moved into a new neighborhood in 1990, Andy was pretty much the first person we ________. He came across the street to ________ us. Having lived there since 1967, he was warm and kind, full of ________. He would introduce to us which bakery for cakes, which store for shopping and ________ the occupations of everyone around us.

Andy would proudly and regularly ________ his veteran (老兵) cap and play music while doing yard work. ________ anything, though, he delighted in talking about our kids as much as about his. We watched out for each other. He would ________ our vegetable gardens when we went on vacation; we gave him some of our ________ in return. Andy and I would also complain about the big trucks that used our streets as a shortcut. As more time went by, we didn’t see him out ________ his small dog as often due to his ________ problem, and we’d help with clearing the ________ in the winter. Those ties continued with time passing by.

But the real ________ of our neighborhoods is their people — an Andy, or, in some cases, many Andys. Our neighborhoods are built on them, and ________ by their emotional ties. We are better for their ________, and worse for their absence.

Andy died this month. I will miss him, more than he ________.

6 . Paul O’Sullivan was around his Baltimore apartment one evening, feeling bored. Having nothing better to do, he logged on the social network to find out how many others ________ his name. Moments later, many Paul O’Sullivans popped out. On a whim (一时兴起), he decided to ________ friend requests to them all.

Many of his fellow Paul O’Sullivans ignored him but a few felt too ________ to resist his invitation. He ________ that four of them were all musicians. Wouldn’t it be funny if he asked the other musical Pauls to ________ a band? So they did.

Starting a band across multiple time zones proved to be ________. Shaky Wi-Fi and other technical difficulties meant they often failed to work ________ at the same time and speed. To ________ this, Baltimore Paul and Rotterdam Paul write and record a basic track, then ________ it to Manchester Paul. ________he records a bass track, he e-mails it back to Baltimore Paul.

Later Pennsylvania Paul adds the drumbeat. Round and round the ________ goes until they released their first original song, “Namesake”, which is about ________ relationships, just like theirs.

________ , months later, Baltimore Paul had to stop due to health issues. The other Pauls didn’t ________ their friendship. They made sure Baltimore Paul never felt ________. It was about four years before Baltimore Paul was ________ enough to start making music again. They created a music video for “Namesake” in 2020, which pulled in more than 20,000 ________ in its first two weeks online. Now, a new source of ________ for the Pauls is to spend time with each other in person.

“What are the odds,” says Baltimore Paul, that a random ________ would lead not only to new music but to lasting ________ as well? “Some things are just meant to be”.

7 . Some folks spend decades looking for their best friends. I was   ________   enough to find mine in Grade 7 at my senior school –eight   ________   girls.

As we progressed to high school, a couple of girls ________ and a couple of new ones wormed their way in. By the end of Grade 12, the group had more or less ________ into its final form, one that’s remained remarkably ________ for the past 20 years.

Among our many ________ is an annual Christmas exchange. This event first ________ when we were 12. We set it up on the long, sticky cafeteria tables at our school to swap ________ gifts bought with our babysitting money. In following years, we’d ________ a night of it, watching movies and ordering pizza in parents’ living rooms, ________ moving into our own shabby student apartments, into slightly less shabby adult apartments and then into our first   ________ .

At the beginning, we gave each other butterfly hair clips and so on. Those ________ bright mall jewellery and cheerful housewares as we began nesting in our 20s and baby clothes once we started having ________ in our 30s.

Holidays with family can be ________ , but our exchange offered something else:a chance for my friends and me to ________ our own traditions and play at being grown-ups.

9 . If you have that one friend, you're rich. That one friend is different from all the others, dear as they may be.

I met Jeanine on my ________ day of high school, more than 35 years ago, at the age of 15. Painfully shy, I had ________ up for student council because I thought it might save me from wandering around a huge high school shamefully alone. It was still early in the day. I'd ________ my new green trench coat and couldn't remember which building it was in. ________ there in the office, miserable, I wanted to vanish into the crowd.

Heard a girl's ________ : “Do you have a lot of friends？”

When I saw her — tiny, delicate, with beautiful eyelashes — I ________ and answered, “Are you kidding? I'm the girl ________ knows.”

“Well, I'm nobody,” Jeanine said.

That was it.The two of us were instant ________．For the next years Jeanine and I spent hours on the phone each weekday and virtually every weekend night together.As boys came and went, we drowned our ________ in tomato soup.In my mother's old Chevy, we cruised (游览) the West Side of Chicago. We sat on AI Capone's grave one Halloween night. Lying on blankets under the stars, we talked of our ________ , pouring our hearts out.

Jeanine wanted to sing on the Broadway stage, ________ I wanted to write a novel.

As high school ________, I became a student council officer and made friends by the score. Jeanine? She ________ the sidelines.She was like the angel in my pocket.I never forsook her, never excluded her. Other friends could not understand our ________ , because we seemed like such ________．But we weren't.