2 . In Favour of Simple Writing

Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in _______ even the simplest message. If you do not, you may see yourself as a go-getter, one who values excitement and speed over _______: get it done decently now rather than perfectly later.

People are constantly receiving messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. What to read, what to skim (略读) and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens of times a day. A new book titled All Readers are Busy Nowadays makes the argument for being the careful kind of _______, even in informal lines. The authors also present well-established _______ that have long been prized in guides to writing.

Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well advocate the advice to _______ needless words. The authors, however, have _______ the idea. In an email to thousands of school-board members asking them to take a survey, cutting the count from127 to 49 words almost _______ the response rate.

Keeping messages to a _______ idea—or as few as absolutely needed—helps ensure that they will be read, remembered and acted on. _______ the number of the available options has the same effect, too. A link in an email, ________, attracted 50% more clicks when presented alone than when it was sent alongside a second additional link.

Syntax (句法) and ________ matter, too. It is more ________ to adopt short and active sentences, with common words familiar to everyone. From Facebook posts to online-travel reviews, even brief, informal pieces of writing that follow these rules get more likes and shares.

If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to sent as many messages as ________ as possible and hope for the best. But from essays to text messages organizing dinner plans, devoting time to the needs of readers has provable ________. If you are so busy that you write an undisciplined message which readers scan, ignore and delete, then you might as well have not ________ it at all.

3 . Being a social butterfly just might change your brain: In people with a large network of friends and excellent social skills, certain brain regions are bigger and _______ connected than in people with fewer friends, a new study finds.

The research suggests a _______ between social interactions and brain structure. “We’re interested in how your brain is able to allow you to _______ the right way in complex social environments,” Mary Ann Noonan said, a neuroscientist (神经学家) at Oxford University. Studies in monkeys have shown that brain areas involved in face processing and in predicting the _______ of others are larger in animals living in large social groups than in ones living in smaller groups.

To investigate these brain _______ in humans, Noonan and her colleagues found 18 participants for a structural brain-imaging study. They asked people how many _______ they had experienced in the past month, in order to determine the size of their social networks. As was the case in monkeys, some brain areas were _______ and better connected in people with larger social networks. “These different brain regions are all singing _______ songs,” Noonan said. “ _______ areas are all singing the same song, and when they’re connected better, they’re singing more harmoniously with each other.”

The researchers also tested whether the size of a person’s social network was connected with ________ in white-matter pathways, the nerve fibers (纤维) that connect different brain regions. ________ , they found that white-matter pathways were better connected in people with bigger social networks. “The nerves were more like a Los Angeles freeway than a ________ road,” Noonan said.

The researchers couldn’t say whether social interaction ________ these changes in brain structure and connectivity, or whether the brain determined how social someone was. In the case of the monkeys, the researchers asked and wrote down the size of the animals’ social network, so they ________ that social-group size was causing the brain differences. It can be inferred that a similar process takes place in human brains, but to prove the ________ , long-term studies are needed, Noonan told Live Science.

4 . 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.

6 . Part of me has always wanted to be the kind of person who breaks the ice with a stranger. When I witness that kind gregariousness (合群) in others, I feel_________; I assume their lack of reserve means they lead more exciting lives. How many tales of adventure began because someone had the_________to say hello? Talking to someone I don’t know_________low-level fear, and I avoid it entirely.

I’m not alone. In a 2022 study, Gillian Sandstrom, a psychologist, noted that people are “remarkably_________” about talking to strangers, despite research linking frequent social interactions with happiness. We tend to_________the potential for negative consequences in such encounters, and actively avoid them. As a countermeasure, she gave participants “missions” that involved initiating conversations with strangers who met certain_________(e.g., “Find someone who’s wearing a hat”). The results were_________Sandstrom s assumption: these interactions were far more pleasant than people expected them to be.

Eager to test her theory, I gave myself a week to reproduce Sandstrom’s assignment, which meant speaking to around 30 people. I had no_________not 10 try: I live in New York City and encounter hundreds of strangers.

One of my missions was to speak to someone who was eating. “Is that cream cheese?” I asked a guy on a park bench who was eating stuff. It_________a little more disrespectful than I intended, but once he realized that I wasn’t crazy, we had a(n)__________conversation. When I spoke to an attractive woman on crutches (拐杖) for my task of engaging someone who “looks sad,” I was worried she’d think of me as a pickup artist.__________, she humored me when I told her about my knee issues.

Here’s a tip: asking strangers about the bonuses of talking to strangers can be an effective strategy. I used this__________with people required to interact with the public as part of their job. Among the waiters I spoke with, a common response was that chatting with customers was one of the most enjoyable aspects of their day, providing a little burst of__________. A cafe worker told me that he was an expert at guessing a customer’s order based on their appearance—yoga clothes? black coffee—but felt a distinct joy whenever he got it wrong.

My__________didn’t transform me into a fearless extrovert (外向者). But it was a useful reminder that when it comes to keeping life interesting, it__________to make room for the occasional surprise.

7 . I moved into my house at the end of last year. I _______ that there was a tree in the front yard. My partner told me they _______ it was a fig (无花果) tree and _______, as the months went by, the tree grew huge leaves and _______ came to fruition. Figs the size of my fist! My partner and I were _______ but we didn’t know what to do with all the figs.

About a week ago, my next door neighbor came and properly introduced himself. He then asked if he could _______ some figs from my tree. Immediately, I _______ him to take as many as he liked. He told me that 12 years ago, the _______ owner of the house I live in now used to be very good friends with him and they planted this very fig tree way back then. I came home one day, to find a fruit box outside my front door. This _______ filled my heart with happiness and gratitude. It ________ me that there are still lively people in the world who want to do something nice for their neighbors.

9 . “The silence is killing me,” I thought as I locked my phone, hoping a new message would light up the screen. After 27 messages, two phone calls and a voicemail, I’d just sent my final text to the person who _________ to be my best friend at college.

The two of us met freshman year and, since we _________ almost all the same core classes, rapidly became inseparable throughout college. We _________ stayed up together for studying, and were each other’s partner for late-night pizza runs. Then one day after graduation, she suddenly _________ responding, apart from claiming she “didn’t have enough time for herself”. That breakup was the most _________ I’d experienced. After four years of building such a _________ relationship, I thought I’d at least receive a(an) _________ for why she wanted to end things. _________, I received only a brief, indirect message about self-care and-what hurt me most-a(an) _________.

Over the past few years, the concept of “drawing boundaries” has __________ in the pop psychology. Discussions of cutting people off and protecting your energy__________ dominate social media. And after nearly three years in __________, the ways the Covid-19 pandemic has __________ many of us to reevaluate our relationships with others show up everywhere in pop culture.

The __________ of self-care are fairly obvious: by prioritizing our own well-being, we’re able to engage in emotional healing, build confidence, __________ anxiety and simply rest. However, an extreme focus on self-care can lead to a(an) __________ perspective of the world in which we always put ourselves first, even when we’re in the wrong. This doesn’t just __________ us-it can have real, painful consequences for the people around us.

Sometimes it can feel __________ for us to remove ourselves from conflict or discomfort under the mask of __________. However, walking away from these relationships without a real conversation actually__________ us and our loved ones of an opportunity for growth.

10 . Clothes play a critical part in the conclusions we reach by providing clues to who people are, who they are not, and who they would like to be. They tell us a good deal about the wearer’s background, personality, status, mood, and social outlook.

Since clothes are such an important source of social information, we can use them to _______ people’s impression of us. Our appearance _______ particular significance in the original phases of interaction that is likely to occur. An elderly middle - class man or woman may be alienated (疏远) by a young adult who is dressed in an unconventional manner, _______ the person’s education, background, or interests.

People tend to _______ what certain types of clothes mean. Adolescent girls can easily agree on the _______ of girls who wear certain outfits, including the number of boyfriends they likely have had and whether they drive or drink. Newscasters, or the announcers who read the news on TV, are considered to be more convincing, honest, and _______ when they are dressed conservatively. And college students who view themselves as taking an active role in their interpersonal relationships say they are concerned about the _______ they must wear to play these roles successfully. _______, many of us can relate instances in which the clothing we wore changed the way we felt about ourselves and how we acted. Perhaps you have used clothing to gain confidence when you _______ a stressful situation, such as a job interview, or a court appearance.

In the workplace, men have long had ________ dress code and role models for achieving success. It had been otherwise for women. A good many women in the business world ________ the appropriate mixture of “masculine” and “feminine” (女性气质的) attributes they should convey by their professional clothing. The variety of clothing alternatives to women has also been more ________ than that available for men. Male administrators tend to judge women more ________ for managerial positions when the women display less “feminine” grooming - shorter hair, ________ use of make - up, and plain tailored clothing. As one male administrator confessed, “An attractive women is definitely going to get a longer interview, but she won’t ________ the job.” We need a change in this regard.