Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren't 1 but this was one of those celebrations that I didn't mind. They are a bunch of young, single guys and I would have felt out of place.
What 2 me was the way they behaved. One of the young men came over 3 in the day to "warn" us of the upcoming event and said it would be over at about 11 p. m. That was the first step. Even more 4 was what they did next. "Here's my 5 " offered our neighbor 6 . "Text me if it's too noisy." That was a level of 7 I had never experienced in all my years of being a neighbor!
And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the 8 end time, even when the music reached high decibels（分贝）, and even when we couldn't get through on the phone number, we felt no 9 . We knew they would stop and be 10 eventually.
It takes such little effort to make people feel that they 11 and get people on your side. Everyone needs to let loose every now and then, especially in these uniquely tough times. But people who do it without 12 others are few and far between. I hadn't fully 13 my neighbors until this week. We had adopted that all too American "live and let live" posture. But now I see them in a new light and with greater 14 . They didn't just bring noise to the neighborhood; they shone the light of 15 .
