【推荐2】We were going to play against a team from a country school. They didn’t come until the game time arrived. They looked _______ than we had thought. They were wearing dirty blue jeans and looked like farm boys. We even thought that they had never seen a basketball before.

We all sat down. We felt that we didn’t _______ any practice against a team like that.

It was already so late that no _______ could be given to them for a warm-up.

The game began.

One of our boys _______ the ball and he shot a long pass to our forward (前锋). From out of nowhere a boy in a dirty T-shirt _______ the pass and with a beautiful form he shot and got two points.

They _______ us.

Then they got another pair of points in a minute.

Soon it was all over. The country team _______ us.

We certainly learned that even though a team is good, there is usually another just a little better. But the important lesson learned was: One can’t tell a man, or a team, by the _______.

【推荐3】People all over the world enjoy sports. Sports are good ________ people’s health. They also make people strong. Some people like playing games by themselves, but some enjoy watching others ________. They buy tickets or turn on their TV sets to ________ games. They usually have “their teams” or “their players”, When “their teams” can’t win the game, they are even ________ than the players themselves.

Sports change with the seasons. People play ________ games in different seasons. Most people’s favourite sport in summer is swimming. Skiing is usually a ________ sport.

Sometimes people play games inside the room and sometimes they play ________. We can do sports here and there. Some sports are very ________ and people like them very much. Soccer, for example, is very popular in the world. Men and women, the old and the young ________ like it. People from different countries don’t understand each other, but after a game they often become good ________.

【推荐1】Recently, Huang Guoping’s story has touched a large number of people in China. Born in a mountain village, Huang Guoping lived ________ poor life. It was usual for him to walk without shoes in summer and wear ragged (破旧的) clothes in winter.

When he went to school, his family couldn’t ________ his schooling. What’s worse, his mother left home when he was 12. He had to make money ________ raising baby pigs, catching eels (鳝鱼) at night and fishing on weekends. At that time, doing homework and reading books were ________ happiest part of the evening.

After going to high school, he got support from kind-hearted people, especially his teachers. However, his father died in a traffic accident when he was 17. And in the same year, his only remaining family ________, his grandmother, passed away.

Huang Guoping didn’t know ________ to give up. From the middle school in the mountains to Southwest University in Chongqing, and finally to University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, he could keep on ________ he followed his heart.

“I hope I can keep a(n) ________ heart after years of fighting than before. I hope I have the chance to discover the world again and live up to what I ________ through in my life. And I will feel it is worth if I can do something ________ someone else’s life better,” he said.

In the course of life, the first step of the lead is likely to mean the final victory, so the success and failure or ________ and loss of your life may lie in whether you dare to show yourself or not.

As a student, I was most ________ to answer questions in class, and I found that the students around were just like me. At the beginning of each class, when the professor asked a question, instead of ________ my head, I always looked down for fear that the professor saw me.

In a foreign language class, an expert(专家) from the Commercial Bank gave a speech. The speaker always wanted someone to be in ________ with him, so he asked how many students in the classroom learned Economics, but no one replied. The expert said with a smile, “Let me tell you a ________ first.”

“When I came to the United States to study, there are often speeches delivered in the university. Each time they invite an expert from Wall Street or a company to make a speech.”

“________ the beginning of every speech, I found an interesting phenomenon(现象). The students around me always took a cardboard, wrote their names with the most eye-catching color, and then placed it on the seat. As a result, when the speaker needed the reply, he could see and call listener’s name ________.”

“I couldn’t understand ________ they did that, so I asked the student in front of me. He told me with a smile, the speakers are all very successful people who mean chances. When your answer is either to his satisfaction or ________, it is very possible that he will give you more chances. This is a very simple reason.”

“The fact was also like that, I really saw a few students around me went to work in the first class company because of their excellent insights (洞察力), and this had a great influence on me. The chances will not find you ________. You must keep showing yourself to catch others’ attention for you to find a chance on the cards.”

【推荐3】No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own effort.

I learned this lesson from a(n) ________ many years ago. I worked as a new football coach (教练) at a university in State of Georgia.

It was a tradition for the school’s old team in the club to play against a ________ team at the end of the term. The old team had no coach, and they didn’t even practice to prepare for the game. Being the coach of the new team, I helped them practice once a week and I thought we were sure to ________, but to my surprise, we lost the game. I could ________ believe that I had got into such a situation. After thinking hard about it, I came to realize that I might be too ________ about ourselves. I had to change my attitude (态度) and the way of training.

Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I pushed and ________ them. I started doing anything I could to help them. That summer, when other teams ________ their holidays, we met every day and practiced passing and kicking the football.

Six months later, we won our first game and our second, and continued to head in. Finally, I thought even if we lost the game, it would still be a ________ for us. But that didn’t happen. My boys beat the best team in the state, giving me one of the ________ memories of my life!

From the experience, I learnt a lot about how the attitude of a leader could change a team. I helped them to see themselves ________, and they built themselves into winners.

Winners are made, but not born.