Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.
(26) _____________friends is one of the most difficult and worthwhile experiences of human life because it requires time and effort and patience and understanding and acceptance and honesty. Many people (27)_____________ friendship with acquaintances and they're not the same at all. Acquaintances are people you (28) _____________with; they're convenient but interchangeable.
Friends are people you actively seek out, people with whom you have something in (29) _____________, and the link is deeper and stronger. It is very possible for one to become the other, and everyone who becomes a friend had to be an acquaintance first. (Friendship can be downgraded, for example, when two people move apart geographically or emotionally or situationally - changing jobs, (30) _____________ status, and so on). If you've taken yourself off house arrest, you've begun making acquaintances. The question then is how to turn an acquaintance into a friend.