1 . 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.

4 . 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.

5 . “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.

6 . How long have you been going to the same hairdresser or barber? It’s a question that gets us thinking about the unique friendship we _______ with our stylists over the years.

You have confidence in each other. You have a laugh together and regularly _______ each other’s news. Plus they try to make you look and feel your best. That’s a(n) _______ not only for a great friendship, but also for the perfect relationship with your hairdresser. When you find a good barber, it’s something to _______.

Many people have _______ experiences with their hairdressers. I’ve had my hair cut by Claire Miller for more than 15 years. She’s taken me through all kinds of _______, and she’s helped me find a totally new look now during the post-chemotherapy (化疗后) period with dyed blonde hair! _______ hairstyles, there have been communications about the joys and trials of motherhood, the _______ of health problems and changes in our careers and lives — the stuff of 15 years that we have _______ in the three salons Claire has worked in.

While she cut my hair recently, we chatted about that special __________ that forms between hairdressers and their clients. “You hear so many stories from them, and sometimes you feel like a counselor __________ a hairdresser. You assess their needs, and you know how to react to them,”says Claire.

For Claire, the customer interaction is something she loves about the job and that she has __________ developed throughout her working life. “It’s about being human and __________ about people. A lot of my clients are my friends and like family now. It’s my __________ to cut their hair, making them look and feel good, but I also want them to feel __________ by the experience,” laughs Claire.

7 . While working as a graduate student in New York City, Vanessa Bohns was given the much ________ job of collecting survey data in Penn Station as part of an academic research project. Each time she________ a passer-by, she thought she would hear them tell her how________they were. Yet the bad responses rarely came; many more people were________to answer the questionnaires than she had ________.

Was it possible, she wondered, that most of us are________about whether people want to respond to our requests? Over the following decade, she________ multiple studies that confirmed this was indeed the________: in many different situations, people are often far more likely to ________than we assume.

________, it seemed that the results provided a refreshingly________view of human nature. “It started as a positive thing, like, isn’t it ________that people are more likely to do things for you than you think?” However, with time going by and more reflection on the results, Bohns has come to________ that her results reflect a broader tendency that we usually ________ how much influence our words can have over others, whether we’re asking them to________actions that are good or bad. People often________to do what they are asked because they find it too awkward to say no, even when they feel________with our requests.

Knowing this can help us understand how our requests might________other people — particularly in the workplace — and help us adjust our requests________ , in ways that respect people’s ________ and without taking what they have done for us for granted.

10 . An urgent call came into Jim's bar. A newly married woman, having spent the afternoon at the bar, couldn't find her _______ She didn't care about her cash _______ her wedding ring inside.

With the _______ to find the wallet, Jim spent hours _______ the security-camera videos, watching the woman's every step in the bar until she left. Several minutes later, a teenager approached the bench, and   _______ something into his pocket.

Jim _______ the clip on Facebook. “I didn't want to _______ him,” he said, “but to know who the guy was. " Within hours, Jim got a text from a 17-year-old Peter. Peter _______ having taken the wallet and said he'd done it because he hadn't _______ for two days. He thought the ring was __________ , so he took the cash to purchase a sandwich and threw the wallet off the public docks (码头） into the ocean.

Jim called Peter to meet him at the docks. Deep in conversation, he __________ that Peter wasn't getting along with his family. Jim, a father of two kids, saw him for what he was: more of a kid than a __________ However, because of the missing ring, the police were already on the spot. Peter could be facing __________ and sent to prison. “I had to help him somehow. ” a voice __________ in Jim's mind.

He sought the ring in the strong current, but over 2 hours passed with no __________ of it. He hired local divers to   __________ the waters where the wallet had been thrown.   __________ a diver emerged. In his hand was the wallet with the ring inside. Cheers __________ from the bystanders. The __________ wallet owner dropped the charges against Peter for stealing the ring.

“Most people would have given the video to the police, and he chose to __________ me. ” Peter told CBS News. “ I say thank you to him every day. ”