My friendship with the students in a primary school in Uganda started on a shaky ground. The _______ of not being understood was hidden within, for they spoke a language different from that of mine and mine too fell on _______ ears.

I greeted them with a broad smile, and they replied with ice cold _______ when I spoke further. A _______ echoed in my mind: you must live through it to get to them. So I gave it another try. I spoke _______ English with hand gestures and a bit of dancing. If all failed, the smile would ______. Soon we picked up and then the _______ of the learners came into play. At the mention of a name, reddish cheeks and shaking voices were the response I got. I decided to _______ a desk with a team each day during group work to get closer. After school, I _______ them home.

__________, we became friends. They were eve aware of my favorite fruit, avocado (牛油果) . If I didn’t get one on my desk, it would __________ me wherever I was. My slippers were __________. One night I left them out as no one could steal a pair of slippers in that state. The next morning, I was ready to drag my slippers on as usual and I was surprised they had been __________. Wow!

The little things we do for each other bring us great joy and __________. We don’t have a proper spoken language, but we are fluent in the language of __________.

Pen pals Jill Stretton and Cathie Alexander live half a world apart. However, they’ve_________a faithful correspondence (通信) for seven decades.

The long­lived letter­writing relationship _________in 1950 when 12­year­old Stretton from Australia was given Alexander’s_________by a friend. Back then, it sometimes took six weeks for a long­distance letter to reach its_________，but the pair established an instant rapport (融洽) after their first_________that has grown_________with time.

Though the two women didn’t meet in person until 1982, they felt as if they had truly_________with one another, sharing life’s moments through their letters. “She is just like one of the family，” Stretton said.“And we are still together as we ever were 70 years ago. That is quite_________for people who've lost confidence in ever­lasting friendship.”

Stretton and Alexander have never stopped_________to one another. Along with hopes, dreams, photos, and family updates, through the years, their letters have contained their sweet life__________ —weddings, birthdays, graduation and so on.

While they__________write letters, with the development of technology, Stretton and Alexander have slightly bowed to the times. For longer messages, they’ve turned to the Internet, but they agree that nothing will__________a handwritten note. “Now, we do__________to send postcards rather than write long letters because we email each other now,” Stretton__________honestly. But letter writing plays the most important part in their friendship.

The two women’s story proves that the__________is nothing when it comes to true friendship.

When I was 14, I invited some friends for a party at our home out in the country. I planned it well, but something __ happened. When it was time for us to ride the bus, Nora, one of my friends, didn’t ___.

I felt __ . Why would she tell me she’d come to the party and then __ without letting me know? So, I decided to call Nora and get some answers. I needed no __ but I demanded to know why.

Nora __ she had to stay away from school because she was sick. Anger still seized me and I __ to listen, “What kind of friend are you?” Nora began crying on the phone, hurt and surprised. For the rest of the school year, we __ hung around again, and I forgot about my __ call with Nora. __ had happened between us at some point, but I shrugged (耸肩) it off.

Years later, I began to __ that ugly phone conversation. I regretted it. I recognized how selfish, and __ I’d been, caring only about myself. I wanted to make things __ . I wrote an apology letter to Nora and soon got her __ . So finally, we did bring a sad moment from the past to a __ conclusion, healing both of us.