【推荐1】For me, becoming an Olympian was not developing a gift of natural athletic ability, but an act of will.

In the summer of 1979, I started _______ for the Olympic trials(选拔赛) to be held the next year.I felt happy as I made progress towards my big _______. But then in November, an _______ situation appeared. I injured my back and couldn’t move. I had to leave the _______. Everyone felt _______ for me. Everyone but me.

I never believed this would _______me. However, my _______ was slow. With only a few months remaining, I knew I would never make it _______ I did something. So, I started training in the only way I could in my mind.

I bought films of the world­record holders in pentathlon (五项全能运动).Sitting in a chair, I _______ them over and over.I lay on the bed and imagined the experience of ________ at the trials. Some people thought I was crazy, but I wasn’t ready to ________ yet. I trained as hard as I could without moving a muscle (肌肉). I ________ this practice with all my heart.

By the time the trials actually began, I had been ________ enough to compete. ________,as I walked across the field, I heard a voice on the loudspeaker announcing my name.I could hardly hold back my ________ as the announcer said, “Second place,1980 Olympic Pentathlon: Marilyn King.”

【推荐2】Thirteen can be a challenging age. Not only did I have to _______ my changing body, I also had to deal with the _______ move from my country home to a crowded suburb.

When we moved, my beloved _______, a small brown pony, had to be sold. Feeling alone, I couldn’t eat or sleep. I missed my friends and my pony. My father realized that and _______ an old horse for me in the market. I named him Cowboy.

Cowboy was without a doubt the _______ horse in the world, and he was pigeon-toed and knock-kneed. But I didn’t _______ his faults. I loved him beyond all reason. I joined a riding club and _______ rude comments about Cowboy’s looks. I never revealed how I felt, but deep down inside, my heart was _______. When Cowboy and I entered the events _______ the horse is judged on appearance, we were ________ out of the game. This ________ experience made me determined to do something.

And then I realized that my only chance to ________ would be in the timed-speed events. I chose barrel racing (绕桶比赛). For the whole next month I woke up early every day, rode Cowboy five miles to the arena (比赛场) and we ________ for hours in the hot sun.

My turn ________ came. At the signal, we dashed toward the first barrel, quickly whipped around it and with perfect precision ________ the second and thundered on to the third. We tore around the final curve and shot for the ________ line. No cheers filled the air. The end of our run was met with surprised ________. With the sound of my heart pounding in my ears, I heard the ________ call our time. Cowboy and I had beaten other fancy horses and won the blue ribbon!

________, I gained much more than a blue ribbon that day. At thirteen, I realized that no matter what the difficulties, I’d always come out a ________ if I wanted something badly enough to work for it. I can be the master of my own destiny.

【推荐3】Who to Believe?

“My doctors told me I would never walk again because of the illness. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”

Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 into a very large and poor African-American family in Tennessee. When she was four years old, a deadly _________ made her left leg useless. She had to wear an iron leg brace (固定器). Her doctors told her she would never _________ like a normal person without the brace. _________ she was fortunate in having a mother who encouraged her to have faith and _________ .

At nine years of age, the little girl _________ the leg brace and took the step that her doctors had said was _________ . Then she got the incredible idea that she would like to be the world’s greatest woman _________ . Now, what could she mean- be a professional sportswoman with a useless leg?

At the age of thirteen, she began to enter races, but she came in last in every race. Everyone begged her to   _________ it. One day, however, she came in next to last. Then there came a day when she won a race. From then on, she   _________ every race that she entered.

In 1957, Wilma went to Tennessee State University, where she met a __________ named Ed Temple. He trained her so well that in 1960 she went to the Olympic Games in Rome. There she __________ a German girl named Jutta Heine, the greatest woman runner of the day. Wilma had just won two Olympic gold medals both in the 100-metre sprint (短跑) and the 200-metre sprint. Then came the 400-metre relay. It would be Wilma __________ Jutta. When the third runner handed the baton (接力棒) to Wilma, she was so excited that she __________ it, and Wilma saw Jutta taking off down the track. It was impossible that anybody could catch this girl. But Wilma did just that! Wilma Rudolph had __________ her third Olympic gold medal in the 17th Olympic Games.

That day Wilma made history as she became the first woman to win three gold medals in the same Olympic Games. Later she said. “The success can’t be reached without the __________ . I have spent a lifetime trying to share my story so that other young women have a chance to reach their __________ ”

Wilma had never __________ that she would not walk again and she kept struggling and finally earned the title of the world’s __________ woman. Her story told us it is our __________ that show what we truly are far more than our __________ .

【推荐3】I know a woman who tries hard to be a good custodian. I pass her every day after school as she pushes her cart(小车) down my hallway. Of course, she is my building's cleaner.

One Tuesday morning I came into school and saw a _________ on my desk from my custodian. It seemed that some unbearable first year students had damaged the bathroom in a particularly disgusting way and she had been _________to clean it. This took_________than she had expected. She had left the typewritten note on my desk to _________ for not being able to clean my room as she was _________to do. At the beginning of the period, I shared her note with my first period_________. When I mentioned that our custodian had apologized to us, their first _________ was to volunteer to seek out and beat up those first year students for making our custodian have to clean up their_________. It turned out that just about all of my students also knew our custodian by name---all of them responded with smiles and _________for a long time about this time or that time when she'd__________each of them in the hallway. That she felt she needed to apologize __________a strong reaction from many of the kids.

As the class period was about to end, I asked them to__________ the floor like I do every period and thanked them for picking up any garbage __________ it wasn't theirs. My entire class disappeared; they each disappeared instantly__________their desks to pick up those annoying tiny pieces of paper that __________so easily from notebooks. One girl made a（an__________that I later used with my other classes:" Her job might be to clean the room, but she shouldn't have to clean up__________ us. There's a difference.”

I believe that people know the difference between right and wrong. I believe that people appreciate it when others__________take care of them. And I believe that people, even adolescents who are not quite yet mature, appreciate it when they see someone who takes __________in her work. Sometimes we need a __________of the things we take for granted...things like a good custodian to take care of us.