I used to hate running. At secondary school I found it very tired to run around the sports field and I was always one of the ________ students to cross the finish line. Then, in 2020, my friend asked me to run with him. My ________ was, “No way! I hate running”.

During the weekend I thought about his question. “Why do I hate running?” I thought, In the end I decided to ________ it. I told my friend I would like to run with him. He was ________ to hear that. He advised me to look for a running program on the Internet to ________ me learn how to run. There were lots of running programs on the Internet. I ________ a 14-week running program. I would attend a match when I finished the program. I had to run three times a week. At first, I ran for short periods of ________ and had long breaks. Then ________ the weeks went on, I had to run for longer periods of time and the breaks got ________. I enjoyed following the running program each week. Now I can run for ________ than 30 minutes each time! I went from ________ running to loving running.

On the day of the ________ I was both excited and nervous. ________ was finally time to put my new skills into practice. My friends and family came to support me. It was lovely to have them there. With their support and my training, I managed to finish the 10000-metre run in 72 minutes. I was very ________ of that.

From this experience I ________ it was a good idea to try something before saying I hated it! Because it turned out that I really enjoyed running.

Most students in our school love sports. Every morning after we get to school, we ____ for about ten minutes. After the second class, we do class-break setting-up exercise. We only have a(n) _____ lesson twice a week. Basketball is very ______. Most boys and girls like it. ____ popular sport is football. Some boys often ____ soccer on the playground. Some other students like to play tennis on sunny days. We have school basketball, football and tennis _____. They often play ____ teams from other schools. When there’s a game, many of us go to watch it and ____ on our team players.

Some of us like track-and-field(田径) events. And we often ____ running and jumping. Sports help us keep _____ and make us happy. There’s going to be a sports meet next month in our school. We can’t wait for it.

【推荐1】Some people have no interest in sports. They think that sports make them ________ and smell bad. They say, “Why waste (浪费) time playing sports?” To these people, I politely say, “You have not found the ________ of sports!”

Let me share a basketball game with you. Two weeks ago, we played ________ another team. Our parents and friends were there to cheer us. A lot of people were watching. We all wanted to ________ the game in front of so many people.

The game was ________ over and we were one point behind. Our coach called us together and said, “Okay, this is it! Either we score now or the game is over. Let’s work hard to score. Even if (即使) we don’t score, ________ we know that we have tried our best. So, boys, don’t think ________. It doesn’t matter if we lose. Just do it.”

Well, in the last minute of the game, we truly scored and two teams tied (打成平局)! We went into overtime (加时) and we lost in the end. But after the game, the coach hugged all of us. He told us that he was pleased ________ he had never seen a team try harder than us.

To be honest, I feel a lot of pleasure in playing sports. It makes me happy and comfortable. That’s why I play sports whenever I get the chance. So my advice is to choose a sport and keep ________ it. Your body will thank you and your mind will be ready ________ well.

【推荐2】Hi, I’m Paul. There are _______ people in my family—my father, my mother and I. We all like ball games, _______ we like different ball games.

My father is _______ tennis fan (迷). He has four tennis rackets and eight tennis balls. He often _______ tennis games on TV. Every afternoon he plays tennis _______ my uncle for two hours. He thinks it’s _______ after a busy (忙碌的) day.

My mother likes _______, but she doesn’t play it—she only watches volleyball games on TV. She thinks they are interesting. And she _______ Jack Green very much. She thinks Jack Green plays very well.

What about _______? Oh, I like basketball. I play it with my ________ after school every day. We all want to join the school basketball team (队).

Li Zhanzhe, a 70-year-old man has been ________ “China Gump（中国阿甘）”. It was reported that he is ________ about running for half a century and has completed over 100 marathons（马拉松）so far. Li started running at the age of 13, at first, he ran after the bus every morning, as a ________ to keep healthy, but soon it has become his passion（酷爱）. Li served in the army when he was young, he ran along the mountain roads. In 1982, he ________ the Second International Marathon in Beijing, the first marathon of his life. In the following years, he has kept on running in many ________.

“This old man is as old as my grandfather, how can he run so fast? That is ________.” a runner in his twenties said after seeing Li compete in the Yueyang Marathon in 2023. How can a 70-year-old man stay in such a ________ condition to finish a marathon, while most half his ________ couldn’t? One reason is that Li runs at least 10 kilometers every day. He has ________ this habit for nearly 20 years, rain or shine. Li Zhanzhe ________ believes that age is just a number and hopes to run until 90 years old.