5 . It was the final part of the 2016 World Triathlon (三项全能运动) Series in Mexico. With just 700 metres to go, Alistair Brownlee was in third place and his younger brother, Jonny, was in the lead. When pushing himself towards the ________ line, Alistair saw his brother about to ________ the track. He had to choose - brotherly love, or a ________ to win the race?

For Alistair, the choice was ________. His brother was in ________. He had to help. Alistair ran towards Jonny, caught him and started pulling him towards the destination. Alistair then pushed his brother over the line. The move put Jonny in second place and Alistair himself in third. It was an ________ end to the race, but Alistair did not want to discuss it with the media. He just wanted to see his younger brother, who had been ________ to the medical area immediately.

The Brownlee brothers have been doing triathlons since they were children. “Obviously, when your older brother is doing it, you think it’s a ________ thing to do.” says Jonny. Alistair says that they ________ each other when they train. Despite ________over “stupid things” now and then, Alistair agrees that having a brother is an ________. “I’ve had my brother trying to beat me at everything I do. It has been an positive force.”

The ending to the race has ________ opinions: should the brothers have been disqualified (取消资格) or ________ for their actions? But for Alistair, his ________was easy to explain: “Mum wouldn’t have been happy if I’d left Jonny behind.” At that moment, he was no longer an athlete aiming for a medal — he was just a ________.

6 . When I suggested my 13-year-old try tennis, she quickly shot me down. “I’m not _________, so stop trying to get me to do sports,” Julianna said. I suggested it because some of my recent happiest memories were of playing ping-pong with her. Tennis seemed like a natural _________ from ping-pong and a great way to _________ some of her growing teen worries on a larger playing field. But my suggestion was always met with _________.

Still, I was undiscouraged. I was convinced that _________ some physical energy would help Julianna. I’ve seen how sports help deal with stress. It _________ for me when I was a teenage girl.

Midway through summer, we stayed at home one afternoon, really bored. “Do you want to play tennis?” I asked. “Sure,” she said. Arriving at the _________, we set down our bags, picked up our rackets (球拍), and _________ towards our sides of the court. The net felt like the visual representation of a growing _________ between us —I desiring a connection and my teenage daughter longing for independence.

I started by hitting a ball over the net, and Julianna took a big swing and __________. We repeated this several more times. I resisted the __________ to tell her she was __________ the racket too close to the neck or to step more into her forehand. We just repeated the __________ of me hitting the ball and her missing it a few times before she finally got it back over the net. “This is fun,” she said with a mixture of surprise and joy and then she smiled __________.

Now we always find time to play tennis. We’re both eager for an activity that can __________ tensions between us in daily life. It’s nice to have a place where both of us can release our __________ feelings and let them go.

Playing tennis together has not only improved our __________ but also brought new dimensions to our relationship. It has become a way for us to connect on a deeper level, __________ just the surface conversations. As we continue to practice and play together, I see Julianna growing in confidence and skill. This __________ activity has become a source of joy for both of us, a time when we can __________ our differences and simply enjoy each other’s company.

7 . A Person Who Has Influenced My Life

There is always a time in one’s life when a hero comes along. Someone who has inspired you can really help you learn what life is about.

I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was fifteen years old that year. It was around eight o’clock one evening when my mother _______ a phone call from her brother-in-law, who told us my aunt was in hospital and that the doctor _______ them she would need an operation immediately. My family became very _______ about my aunt’s situation.

While my aunt was in the hospital with special _______, my cousin Mark, who is mentally disabled, spent time with my family. Mark was seventeen at the time, and had been born with _______ mental disorders, which created a wide range of social and physical problems for him throughout everyday life. He never had any true friend because no one could re late to him. I must _______ that at the beginning I was filled with uncertainty as to how much of a burden my cousin would bring on my family. Now looking back it saddens me to see the _______ I once showed.

Over the two weeks when Mark lived with my family, I probably _______ more about life and its meanings. Thinking back, I took _______ in daily life for granted, believing it would always be there. I never even thought about being able to do things like walking, brushing my teeth, or going to the bathroom on my own. Now I see how ________ I am to be able to do these things independently.

Mark was seventeen, but learned on a nine-year-old level. Although his learning ability was slower than most, he could ________ learn. He explored ________ to do most of the things everyone else did.________ he did pretty well and succeeded in almost everything he tried to do. He ________ his illness and showed an ambition to love life. To him, having a successful life means achieving goals on his own terms and at his own ________.

Mark is my hero, for his disability has forever formed my viewpoint on life.

8 . Never had a lovely sunflower been absent to my house on my birthday, since I turned 13, no cards or notes in it. Calls to the flower shop were always _______ — it was a cash purchase.

I never stopped _______ who the mysterious giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about someone wonderful but too shy to disclose his or her _______ .

My mother even _______ my imaginations. She’d ask me if there was someone who I had done a special favor and then might be showing _______ . As a teenager, _______ , I had more fun assuming that it might be a boy I had a crush on.

When I was 17, I failed _______ in a significant test. That night when the result came, I just _______ my self to sleep. When I awoke in the morning, my mother comforted, “Don’t indulge (沉湎)! It’s not a big deal!”. Yet, I remember _______ out of the house at that time, yelling ... “You just don’t understand”.

One month before my graduation from high school, my father died of a heart attack. My feelings ranged from pain to ________ so that I became completely uninterested in the upcoming ceremony. But my mother, in the midst of her own grief, would deny my ________ any of those things. Before my father died, we had shopped a party dress which made me feel like a(n) ________ Cinderella. But it was the wrong size. Later I totally forgot about the dress. My mother didn’t. The day before the dance, I found that dress, in the right size, ________ still in the box to me — gracefully, and lovingly. She just wanted her child to feel loved and showed that there still existed magic and beauty even ________ hardships.

Actually, my mother passed away one week after I got married. That year the adorable sunflower stopped ________ .

10 . John Kerr and his 86-year-old grandma, Sandy Kerr, are nearing the finish line on a goal they once thought was impossible: Visiting all national parks together.

They kicked off their _________ in September 2023, when John was looking for a way to spend a two-day weekend. He said the idea _________ from a conversation he had with “Grandma Sandy” about his past adventures on the Appalachian Trail. “I felt sorry that she was always _________ vicariously (间接感受到地) through my stories,” John said. “And so just knowing that she had never seen _________ and mountains and the oceans and these _________ wild places on Earth, it just felt like a _________ that I had to her to make sure that she had some memories to take away in her life story as well.” John began _________ their adventures on the social media in 2019, and they quickly _________ a large number of followers.

“You don’t assume your grandma going with you on a camping trip is going to be anything but _________,” John said. “That was my __________. That was my misunderstanding of what age means.” More __________, her spirit was good enough for her to go traveling. “It’s been a __________ adventure; it really has,” Grandma Sandy said. “It’s really been a beautiful time. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything,”

As for __________ from John and Grandma Sandy, they encourage everyone to __________ opportunities for exploration. “We realize that not everybody is going to be able to travel to every national park,” John said. “But there is some adventure to be found in every __________ of the country and we hope that people will go out and seek that adventure.”