A. sensible B. comprehensive C. readily D. in case E. sensitive F. passing G. sign H. space I. suddenly J. liberate K. complex L. granting M. spouse N. perfectly O. ambition "You need an apartment alone even if it's over a garage," declared Helen Gurley Brown in her 1962 bestseller "Sex and the Single Girl". To Brown, solo living afforded the 1 to cultivate the self, furnish the mind and work late, and so on. Young women should enjoy their best years without a 2, she advised, as this not only laid the foundation for stronger marriages but gave them a lifestyle to fall back on 3 they found themselves alone again. Sensational at the time, Brown's counsel seems 4 now. Certainly both sexes have taken it to heart, marrying later, divorcing 5 and living alone in larger numbers than ever before. Yet little is known about the wider social effects of this unprecedented boom, writes Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University. His new book "Going Solo" offers a 6 look at the lures and perils of living alone. Mr Klinenberg parts with those who see the rise of solo living as yet another 7 of the decline of civic society. Now that marriage is no longer the ticket to adulthood, a desire to live alone is 8 reasonable, he writes. Young adults view it as a rite of passage, a period of personal growth before possibly settling down. Its cultural acceptance has helped to 9 women from bad marriages and oppressive families, 10 them a space to return to civic life. And as elderly adults live longer than ever before, often without a partner, many hope to stay independent for as long as possible.