Steel roses, the pride of China

Chinese Women’s Soccer team won the final of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Sunday night. It was the 9th title 16 years later since the last championship in 2006, for     1     countless fans burst into tears behind the screens. The head coach Shui said before the game that the whole team was     2    (adjust) physically and mentally     3    (prepare) for the game, though she admitted their     4    (opponent) had many excellent players who played flexibly. However,     5     matters most was their attitude,     6    (especial) how they face difficulties. Shui encouraged her team to have more     7    (confident) and be more brave despite being behind. The girls kept encouraging     8    (them) to attack. On almost all social media platforms were     9     (tear) remarks and excitement. Thrilled netizens     10    (comment) that the whole team was worthy of every praise.

At the 138th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the     1    (decide) was adopted to change the Olympic motto (格言) for the first time in history. With the word “together”     2    (add) to the phrase “Faster, higher, stronger”, the president of the organization, Thomas Bach, called the incident     3     landmark (里程碑) event. The original version of the motto, written by French priest Henri Didon,     4    (approve) at the first Olympic Congress in 1894. The phrase was so liked by the first President of the IOC, Pierre de Coubertin, that he decided to make     5     the slogan (口号) of the Games. Now the slogan     6    (complete) sounds like “Faster, higher, stronger—together.” The press officer of the committee, Mark Adams, explained to reporters the meaning of the idea,     7    (stress) that an athlete cannot be faster, taller and stronger without a team around him. The Olympic     8    (value) lie not only in individual excellence but also in the environment, the team around the athlete. In the Olympic Games, it is not victory     9     participation that matters. Former speed skater Svetlana Zhurova positively assessed the innovation. However, most of the experts interviewed reacted calmly     10     what happened.

For Chinese swimmer Qian Hongyan, competing at the 4th Asian Para Games (亚残运会) is more about testing her limits. More     1    (important), the 26-year-old will keep encouraging others to face life’s challenges. “It’s great to participate in the Games     2     the first time. I want to inspire more people with disability,” said Qian in an interview.

    3    (know) as the “basketball girl”, Qian has been an inspiration for years. She lost both her legs due to     4     car accident in 2000. Then, she became familiar to people because of a picture of her as a kid sitting inside half of a basketball,     5     acted as protective equipment to help her move around on the ground.

In 2007, she began training in swimming. It     6    (be) hard in the beginning. Without both legs, keeping     7    (her) above water felt like an impossible task. However, with years of hard work, Qian improved,     8    (become) a national team swimmer at the Rio Paralympics in 2016. She finished     9    (nine) in the women’s 100m breaststroke.

Coach Zhang Honghu has seen Qian’s growth from a shy girl into an excellent athlete. “I hope she will keep pushing her limits and have a great life in the years     10    (come),” said Zhang.

After winning the championship in boys’ singles under 14 years old at the ASICS Tennis Junior Tour in Guangzhou in late August, Wang Fa quickly attracted attention on the Internet. Wang is known for carrying his tennis rackets(球拍) in a bamboo basket,     1    (earn) him the name of “basket tennis boy”.

Over the past six years, Wang, along with his peers(同伴) at the Yunnan Wild Elephants Tennis Club,     2    ( improve) his skills and physical    3    ( strong) through training that includes running 9 kilometers and swinging his racket more than 7 ,000 times a day. “If it were not for tennis, I would still be helping out my family with farm work back home,” he told China Daily.

Talking about his habit    4    carrying his tennis gear(装备) in a bamboo basket, Wang said he carried his rackets this way    5    (honor) his hometown, Cangyuan Va autonomous county(沧源佤族自治县), Yunnan Province.

    6    (initial), Wang’s parents did not want him to learn tennis because they thought it was too expensive, but the tennis club offered to teach him free of charge. Zhang Xiaohong, Wang’s head coach,    7    founded the club in 2014, selected around 20 local kids who were quite    8    ( talent) for tennis and trained    9    (they) for free. “I want to take children to the outside world through tennis,” Zhang said.

For Wang, winning the ASICS Tennis Junior Tour title was    10    beginning of a promising future. “I will head to the top spots on the professional stage,” Wang said.