During his life, Dr. James Naismith worked as a doctor, taught P. E. and wrote several books.    1    he never thought it very important, Dr. Naismith is today best known for one thing---he was the    2    (invent) of basketball.

    3    (bear)in Canada in 1861, he first worked at a special sports school in the USA.

One day the school principal told James he was having a problem with the students. Because of heavy snow, the students could not go outside. He told James that they needed a sport that the boys could play indoors and gave him two weeks to think of something.

It was    4    the very last day that James came up with his idea. The “birth of basketball” is said to be on December 21, 1891,    5     two teams from the school played the     6    (one) game. It was quite different from the basketball games of today. It had nine players on each team, and footballs    7    (use) instead of basketballs. Soon after, the game changed to five players on each side,    8     (play) special “basketballs” on the court.

    9    (unfortunate), Dr. Naismith did not live to see basketball become the worldwide game as it is today. However, in 1936, just three years before his death, basketball became     10    Olympic sport at the games in Berlin.

It’s well known that the China women’s volleyball team has been the     1    (nation) pride since it first won the championship in 1981. Whenever they had a     2    (compete), people across the country would cheer for them. But few knew how hard they worked    3    (make)their success look so easy.

A movie,     4    hit the big screen in 2020, tells us the story behind the team. It shows several generations     5     volleyball players and their journey of becoming an international powerhouse.

What attracted people most were not only the impressive skills of     6    (athlete) but also the mental strength they showed. To win matches, China’s ladies trained hard,     7    (live) a dull life of never-ending practice. They even refused to quit working even after the stadium lights had gone out.

The road to the championship is not     8     smooth one. The China women’s volleyball team once fell to the ground. It is their spirits of never giving up and the strong determination that     9    (lead) them to go through ups and downs in the past years. It has     10    (gradual) become a legend in the hearts of Chinese people.