1 . Jordan had his eye on a scoring record. Jordan took a deep breath as he stood in the doorway, looking in at the basketball court. Maybe today I’ll make history, he thought.

The city’s youth basketball league was holding a celebration. Today’s championship game marked 50 years since the league’s first title game (冠军争夺赛).

Before the game, Jordan looked over a special program. It listed the winners of each championship game and the top scorers.

Jordan stopped when he read the name of the top scorer from a game 30 years before. “Devin, look!” he said to his friend, “You see who has the all-time record? My dad! Twenty-four points. But he never told me that.”

“Twenty-four points,” Devin said. “That’s great.”

Jordan’s best was 19 points. He was the league’s top scorer.

When his parents showed up at the gym, Jordan brought the program over to them.

His dad laughed. “I had quite a game that day,” he said. “But look at the score. I prefer to trade all my points for a win.”

Jordan hadn’t noticed that his dad’s team had lost by one point.

“That was a great group of teammates,” Dad said. “I am still a friend of many of them”

As game time came near, Jordan slapped hands with his teammate Tara and then started to warm up. The courts filled up quickly.

Jordan felt strangely calm. He’d played so many games in this gym that it was like his own home. Jordan had led his team to a victory over the Lions last season. Why shouldn’t today be like that?

Jordan grew even more confident when he hit the first 2 shots (投篮).

The Lions called a break. Jordan ran to the bench and jumped up and down with excitement.

“Great start,” Coach said. “But those guys are tough. They’ll come back on us.”

He was right. By half-time, the Lions had pulled ahead, 27-24.

Jordan looked up at his parents. His dad nodded and called, “Great work!”

But Jordan didn’t feel quite as confident as he had before.

The teams traded baskets throughout the second half, with neither building a lead.

Eleven seconds left. The scoreboard was clear: LIONS 51. BADGERS 51.

Coach told Jordan to bring the ball up the court. “Look for Devin inside, but take the shot if you’re open,” he said.

Jordan glanced at his dad again. His dad pointed to Jordan, then held up two fingers on one hand and three fingers on the other.

“Me?” Jordan mouthed.

Dad nodded. Jordan had scored 23 points. Another basket would break the record. And it was the right time to do it!

Jordan ran right, then left, but he was still a long way from the basket.

The viewers started counting the seconds. “Four... three... two.”

Jordan rose to shoot. As the Lions rushed toward him, he passed the ball to Devin—wide open near the basket.

Devin turned and shot. The ball fell cleanly through the net for the winning points.

“Yes!” Jordan shouted. After celebrating with his team, he ran to hug his parents. “You still have the record,” he told his dad.

Dad smiled. “You have something more important. A championship. And great teammates. Congratulations on your history!”

No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own efforts.

I learned this _________ from an experience many years ago. I took the head coaching job at a school in Baxley, Georgia. It was a small school with a weak football program.

It was a tradition for the school’s old team to play against the new team at the end of spring practice. The old team had no coach, and they didn’t even _________ for the game. Being the coach of the new team, I was _________ because I knew we were sure to win. But unluckily, we were defeated (打败). I couldn’t believe I had got into such a situation. Thinking hard about it, I came to _________ that my team might not be the number one team in Georgia, but they were depending on me. I had to change my attitude (态度) about their ________.

I started doing anything I could to help them build confidence. The most _________ thing is that I began to treat them like winners. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their vacations, we met every day and _________ passing and kicking the football.

Six months after suffering (遭受) our defeat, we won our first game and our second, and continued to improve. _________, we faced the number one team. I felt that we would be winners even if we lost the game. But that wasn’t what happened. My boys beat the best team in Georgia, giving me the most exciting moment of my life!

From the experience, I learned a lot about how the attitude of the leader can make a _______ to a team. Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I _________ and encouraged them. I helped them to see themselves differently and they built themselves into winners.

Winners are made, not born.

“Forget about premier League (英格兰足球超级联赛), go to watch the village super league!“ some chinese people might say to a football fan like this. The village super league or “cun chao” in chinese, is a soccer game among different villages in Rongjiang, Guizhou. It was held from May 13th to July 29th in 2023 . Twenty teams took part in it. The matches were so popular that at least one million people watched it on the field and more than 50 million online.

The football players come from different backgrounds. They are sellers, drivers, students, workers, etc. They come from different ethnic (民族 的) groups, such as Miao, Dong, shui, Han and yao. Their ages are from 15 to over 40 years old. But when they put on their team uniforms and walk onto the field, they fight for their common love—football.

Like “cun chao”, another village sports event called “cunBA” was also popular. The matches were held in Taipan village of Taijiang county, Guizhou province. Four teams competed in the finals. The winner came out on March 27th, 2023, over 100,000 basketball fans went there to watch the exciting matches.

Both “cun chao” and “cunBA” enjoy a long history in Guizhou. Football in Rongjiang dates back to the 1940s and basketball in Taipan dates back to 1936. At that time, there were no special fields for villagers to do the sports. But hard conditions stopped no one. Now, with the support of the government, more people can take part in the events, enjoy sports, and live a healthy life. At the same time, the sports events are also helping the development of these villages.

7 . The 1st Student (Youth) Games held its rock climbing competition from Nov. 8 to 11.     1     All the winners were from Mashan county in Nanning, Guangxi.

Mashan county was once poor because of its mountainous environment. But it has given the climbers there an advantage (优势).     2     Among them is 15-year-old Huang Xinyi, who won the women’s speed climbing championship (速度攀爬冠军).

In 2017, the first “rock climbing characteristic (特色) town” in China was built in Mashan county. “To bring the sport closer to more students, 23 primary and middle schools in the county have climbing spaces.     3     We ask a group of professional (专业的) climbers to guide players in the school,” Huang Xujin told Teens.

    4     When she was in the 5th grade of primary school, she became interested in rock climbing and decided to join. For her, climbing is a window to a bigger world. “    5    Competing with climbers across the country helps me become a better player. I hope I can get even greater results in more countries,” she told Teens.

8 . A dragon boat race will be held in our city tomorrow. We are excited about the game.

It was lucky that I _________ for the team of our university last year. Each of us had _________ levels of fitness (体质) at the beginning. We cheered ourselves up and always trained together _________ we were all in the same boat. We took pride _________ our progress. Sometimes, we _________ each other with just eye contact (接触).

One day, after five hours of training, I was so tired that I couldn’t go on. However, I saw my _________ still trying their best to row. I realized that if I stopped, it would be even _________ for our boat to go forward. So I kept going until we reached the end.

Our coach loves _________ spirit of our team. He strongly believes that everyone has _________ own talent. Actually, we could not afford _________ anyone of our team, or we won’t win. When we are rowing, we are a big family.

Now we are ready for the coming dragon boat race.