Our lives are woven together. As much as I enjoy my own ____1____, I no longer imagine I can get through a single day completely ____2____ my own. Even if I am on ____3____ in the mountains, I am eating food someone else has grown, living in a house someone else has built, using electricity someone else is ____4____ to my house. Evidence of ____5____ is everywhere.

As I was growing up, I remember ____6____ carefully taught that independence not interde- pendence was ____7____. When I was face-to-face with ____8____ of some action, my mother’s favorite remark was “ ____9____ you’ve made your bed, lie on it.”

Total independence is a dominant thing in our culture. I imagine ____10____ my parents were trying to teach me was to take responsibilities ____11____ my actions and my choices. And I grew up ____12____ that I was supposed to be totally independent and consequently became very ____13____ to ask for help. I would do almost anything not to be a ____14____, and not require any help from anybody.

When I became ill my illusions of total independence ____15____ in an instant. All of a ____16____ I had to face the fact that I could do nothing, not even sit up, ____17____ someone else’s intervention.

I began to realize that not asking for help is, in fact, ____18____. I love to help people. If I don’t let them help me back, I am not allowing them the ____19____ satisfaction I enjoy. Learning this lesson has allowed me once and for all to see that my life really is a part of a larger ____20____.

1. A. company  B. companion  C. fellowship  D. friendship

2. A. by  B. of  C. On  D. with

3. A. holiday  B. vacation  C. festival  D. rest

4. A. transmitting  B. allocating  C. distributing  D. circulating

5. A. relationship  B. companionship  C. independence  D. interdependence

6. A. be B. to be  C. being  D. to have been

7. A. something  B. anything  C. everything  D. nothing

8. A. seriousness  B. consequences  C. prominence  D. signifi cance

9. A. now that  B. in case  C. on condition that  D. for fear that

10. A. which  B. as  C. that  D. what

11. A. of  B. with  C. In  D. for

12. A. believing  B. suspecting  C. forgetting  D. remembering

13. A. eager  B. dependent  C. reluctant  D. opposed

14. A. load  B. block  C. embarrassment  D. burden

15. A. reinforced  B. vanished  C. abandoned  D. reversed

16. A. while B. time  C. sudden  D. change

17. A. with  B. without  C. instead of  D. in place of

18. A. weak  B. shameful  C. humble  D. selfi sh

19. A. same  B. such  C. much  D. past

20. A. life  B. world  C. existence  D. whole