Stephen is a famous basketball player. It was self-belief, hard work and perseverance     1    made him a success. Stephen’s grandfather built a simple basket by    2    (attach) a piece of plastic to a telephone pole along a narrow muddy road different from the bright lights and shiny courts of the National Basketball Association(NBA). The bumps and rocks caused the ball to bounce in all     3    (direct).     4    (know) where the ball would go wasn’t very easy. However, Stephen improved his skills by practicing day in and day out. Many people thought Stephen was too short, too thin and too weak to start his career. But he regarded playing basketball as his dream. He would not give up. He finally ended up    5    (play)college ball at Davidson College,     6     his creativity and perseverance made him a star player. In 2009,     7     (select)for the NBA, Stephen joined the Golden State Warriors. In 2015, Stephen won his first NBA championship and he led the Warriors to their first championship since 1975. In addition, he received the Most Valuable Player award for two years     8     a row. Stephen shared his philosophy: be yourself, value the fact that you can work every single day to get    9     (good), and be able to put in the time and the work. His success     10     (show)that nothing is impossible.

After a final jump with the highest degree of difficulty for female athletes at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao won     1    gold medal in freestyle skiing women’s aerials (空中技巧). The 32-year-old waited a long time     2    this moment.

First     3    (practice) the sport at the age of 12, Xu fell in love with the feeling of skiing on snow. She said that her deep love for the sport is her first     4    (motivate). Winning an Olympic gold medal was her dream.

But it wasn’t easy to make     5    . Finishing sixth in her first Olympics at Vancouver 2010, Xu managed to take home silver at Sochi 2014. Xu aimed to win the Olympic gold at Pyeongchang 2018, but she finished ninth.

She was not sure     6    she could maintain her     7    (compete) state, but she always felt motivated with support from many people. With perseverance, Xu achieved her dream in 2022. Speaking of the reasons behind this, she said it is not only thanks to her hard work but more     8    (important), the era. Chinese winter sports now enjoy fantastic developments. “This great age       9    (enable) the young generation to achieve our dream and inspires them     10    (build) together a better future for Chinese sports,” said Xu.