Childhood is a state of constant exploration pushing out the boundaries, asking questions, learning, getting into trouble, understanding or not unders

Childhood is a state of constant exploration pushing out the boundaries, asking questions, learning, getting into trouble, understanding or not understanding. Some lessons are (1)…….. to learn, and the pain lingers on into adulthood. “A torn jacket will soon be mended”, wrote the American poet Henry Longfellow; “but hard words bruise the heart of a child.” Young children love to be told stories (2)…….. at bedtime. Often it is the same story, told over and over again, for the familiar is comforting, reassuring. But should stories for children always have happy (3)……, or should they sometimes deal (4)……….. the unpleasant realities of life? Should they have a clear moral message? What should their purpose be to reassure, to instruct, to entertain, to stimulate imagination, to shock, to amuse? Children often have a vivid imgination, and fewer inhibations (5)……… adults about giving the imagination full rein. Perhaps the division (6)……. fiction and reality, truth and lies is a tiresome adult preoccupation, best ignored (7)……… any young creative artists.
Adolescene, on the (8)………. hand, is an awkward time. You are no (9)….. a child and not quite an adult, nut are poised uncertainly on the brink of both words. You do not want to be treated (10)……… a child, but your changed status seems to be ignored, by those ảound you. And the adult world, though full of enticing new freedoms, is not always a comfortable place to be.