Hughie and Freddie are best friends from England. They share many interests in sports. Both of them love ________ and Burnley Football Club. When Hughie found out he had cancer （癌症） at age nine, it meant he had to ________ in the Children’s Hospital for months.

In order to help his best friend, Freddie decided to take on a challenge （挑战）. “I just wanted to help him out and take his mind ________ the whole hospital thing.” Freddie ran 100 kilometers in 50 days, raising much money for the Children’s Hospital. On his final run, Hughie joined in ________ they cross the finish line together. “It was good to know Freddie was by my side,” said Hughie. What they did deeply ________ people’s hearts in the neighborhood, and won them a Pride of Britain prize in 2021.

The friends are going to keep running to raise more money for life-saving machine and “slushie drinks” —an icy drink to make people ________ when their mouths hurt after cancer treatment （治疗）.

The pair has now written a new book about the magic of friendship. Friends Are Amazing tries to teach ________ about togetherness and raise more money. They said, “We know how important it is to have a friend who is always there at the ________ time. We hope our book will inspire （激励） children to be there for their friends too.”

Pen Pals (笔友)

We are learning how to write friendly letters at school. I don’t mind writing practice letters, but it will be more interesting to write a ______ letter to someone.

Today, our teacher, Mrs. Zhang says that we really are going to write a letter to someone! We all start ______ at once. Mrs. Zhang asks us to quiet (安静) down. She says we are going to write to some students of Grade Seven in London to know about their life in ______. That sounds so ______! Mrs. Zhang hands out the ______ of our pen pals, and asks us to use what we learned about friendly letters to write to our pen pals. My pen pal’s name is Oliver.

Mrs. Zhang says we have to write about two ______ in our letters: “Which holidays do you have in the year?” and “What do you like to play?” We also have to answer them in ______ letters.

It takes a few weeks to get ______ back from our pen pals. Oliver plays video games like we do over here. They have many of the ______ holidays as we have, like New Year’s Day! But we don’t celebrate some of their other holidays, such as Boxing Day. It is really interesting to ______ what is the same and what is different about living in different countries.

Sophia was outspoken, fashionable, and the “Queen Bee” in my school.

I looked up to her and idolized (崇拜) her. I listened to the music she listened to, wore the clothes she wore. I even took art class ________ I had really wanted to take theater. I finally fitted in her group.

One day, I skipped out of my last class a few minutes early to ________ seats for our group at the dining hall. Doing my homework, I didn’t notice they had sat down behind me. Before I could say a word, I realized what they were ________.

I listened silently. “She’s such a loser,” one girl said.

Another girl added, “Sophia, she always ________ you, trying to copy you.”

“I wish she would leave us alone. We were in the same summer school and now she thinks we’re best friends. The once familiar voice sounded so ________ and strange.

I was embarrassed. My hands were shaking. I couldn’t help crying ________. I felt heart-broken for the very first time. How did this happen? I ________ we were friends.

I ran home. My mother just held me while I sobbed for hours. The ________ she gave was so simple, and I had heard it a million times. “Just be yourself and people will like you for ________ you are.” This time it became so profound (深邃的). Then and there I ________ to find myself back. That was exactly what I did.

Over the next month, I went through a lot of ________. I bought new clothes that I wanted to wear. I no longer went to art class ________ them, and took theater. I began making new friends. I developed my own opinions and ________ again followed the crowd.

I had an amazing school year. ________ I look back, I think it was the year when I discovered the person I was going to be. Despite the pain I felt that day, it was a ________ they had given me.