Complete the sentences with the given words

• understand
• seemed
• should
• jump
• assume
• preparing
• affecting
• wasting
• support
• misunderstanding
• chance

Before You Make Assumptions

I've always been wondering why people often fail to [ ] each other, why friendships break up or how we end up fighting over nothing. I remember one of my friends told me, he was on the way to school, travelling by metro. There was a guy sitting across from him, his clothes were so bad that my friend thought he was a beggar or something. But then his phone rang and my friend overheard his conversation. It [ ] like the 'beggar' was discussing on the phone with somebody where they [ ] build a new hospital. Isn't that funny? So we assume that we know how things are, but in reality most of the time we are wrong.

Of course, we can't read people's minds. That's why we [ ] to conclusions even though we can't know everything. We just remember a similar situation from our past and [ ] this one would be the same. It seems to be an easy way out but it is actually not.

My older brother likes playing computer games, sometimes maybe too much. He is [ ] to take part in a regional esports tournament, so he often trains with his team, even at night. Our parents are not happy, they often scold him and tell him that this hobby is [ ] his studies and health and that he should stop playing.

Our parents don't know he is serious about it and training to become a pro, so they assume he is just [ ] his time. My brother doesn't know they are worried about him and thinks that they don't [ ] and don't love him. It would be so much better if they just asked each other a few questions and this [ ] would be cleared.

Asking questions seems like a right thing to do, but it also could be scary in a way because it means you have to trust people and believe they are telling you the truth. But I am sure it is better to feel a bit uncertain than getting a wrong impression and miss a [ ] to make a good friend.