2 . My mother turned ninety. I knew I needed to find a senior _______ center. Not for her — for me. If I were at her age, I would want to stay in shape to _______ life, getting a lot of pleasure. Yes, walking in local parks was my _______, but I wasn’t so active as before.

I called a nearby center, “Do you have aerobics (有氧运动) classes _______ for seniors?” “Sure. Come and check us out! We start at 10 am,” the receptionist (接待员) replied and _______. The next morning, I went there. One part of me was _______ that the class was too easy, not doing me any good. The other part feared it was too hard for me to _______.

When I came into the room, a woman _______ me, “Oh, you’re new. Welcome.” Then the music started. The hour-long workout woke up the muscles I didn’t often _______ in daily walks, suiting me fine. I became a member there. My classmates ranged in age from fifty to ninety. Most gave the exercises their own ____________, doing as much or little as they could. ____________ no one kept score. Soon I learned physical well-being wasn’t the only ____________ there. During breaks, people chatted happily. Whenever some people were ____________ we asked around. Were they busy? Were they in hospital? Moreover, we signed cards for those who were ill.

I ____________ to be in good shape now as I’ve hoped. Still, I’m grateful for things more valuable from the class — close friendships and new social ____________.

Lifting a spear, Li Jinqi pulled it across her shoulders and spun (旋转) it     1     (quick). Following her example     2     (be) ten peers in two rows (排) who wore the same Kungfu — style garments (服装) and produced the same movements.

Li is a 24-year-old Ph.D. Student at Bei hang University in Beijing,     3     she is more widely known on campus as a martial arts master and led the university’s martial arts club. Despite being busy with research and coursework (课程作业), the Ph.D. student said     4     (practise) martial arts has become a daily routine for herself over the past five years. She has studied various styles, boxing and swordplay (击剑)     5     (include), and won several cross — campus martial arts competitions held in the capital city

Gao Xiaoya, majoring in electronic information engineering at Beihang, who also joined the martial arts club,     6     (share) that she draws inner peace and strength from the sport. Gao is     7     the many young people who were first attracted to martial arts as a way to keep fit, but who found that their     8     (enthusiastic) grew as they practiced more.

“The rapid growth of the Internet and social media also facilitates communication about traditional Chinese culture, enabling young people to have     9     (easy) access to rare art forms,” said Song Yu,     10     assistant researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

6 . Leek Town Warriors was a girls’ football team which used to get routinely defeated every time they turned out, until James Henry stepped in two years ago. He tended to transform the team’s fortunes and then took the job when the previous coach quit. With the help of his assistant Andy Austin, they started training hard in April 2020.

Some players had never kicked a football before joining the team, so training them took hours of hard work and patience. After a good few weeks, they got down to training and really started to take it in what the coach wanted. “I insist on doing the basic stuff well and letting the girls decide what they feel they need to work on.” James said.

James’ first season was ruined by the pandemic, which forced him and Andy to get creative with training. They organized team-building activities with the girls to help them bond on and off the field. James then spent the sessions they could hold focusing on the basics of football like passing and shooting, bringing the girls up to a good standard.

James watched the girls develop over the course of last year, and in September they played their first match of the new season. They won the game, and since then went on an unbeaten run of eight games. The team’s star player, 15-year-old Chelsea, has also impressed the audience individually, becoming the top scorer in the league with incredible 30 goals.

James said, “All the effort that the girls, us coaches and parents have put in to get this point has been enormous. If I hadn’t had the support of Andy helping me every week, this would have been an impossible task. So I’m incredibly grateful to have him on side. All we want is to bring more girls into the game and show that it’s not all about having the best players; it’s about hard work and giving everyone the chance to play.”

7 . Running is often tiring and a lot of hard work, but nothing beats the feeling you get after finishing a long workout around the track.

But while it’s long been believed that endorphins (内啡肽) —chemicals in the body that cause happiness—are behind the so-called “runner’s high”, a study suggested that there may be more to this phenomenon than we previously knew.

According to a recent study published by a group of scientists from several German universities, a group of chemicals called endocannabinoids (内源性大麻素) may actually be responsible for this familiar great feeling.

To test this theory, the scientists turned to mice. Both mice and humans release high levels of endorphins and endocannabinoids after exercise. After exercising on running wheels, the mice seemed happy and relaxed and displayed no signs of anxiety. But after being given a drug to block their endorphins, the mice’s behavior didn’t seem to change. However, when their endocannabinoids were blocked with a different drug, their runners’ high symptoms seemed to fade.

“The long-held notion of endorphins being responsible for the runner’s high is false. Endorphins are effective pain relievers, but only when it comes to the pain in your body and muscles you feel after working out,” Patrick Lucas Austin wrote on science blog Lifchacker.

Similar studies are yet to be carried out on humans, but it’s already known that exercise is a highly effective way to get rid of stress or anxiety. The UK’s National Health Service even prescribes (开药 方) exercise to patients who are suffering from depression. “Being depressed can leave you feeling low in energy, which might put you off being more active. Regular exercise can improve your mood if you have depression, and its especially useful for people with mild to moderate (中等的) depression,” it wrote on its website.

It seems like nothing can beat that feeling we get after a good workout, even if we don’t fully understand where it comes from. At least if we’re feeling down, we know that all we have to do is to put on our running shoes.

The name of the Paris 2024 mascot (吉祥物) is Olympic Phryge. It is shaped after the     1     (tradition) small Phrygian caps. The name and design were chosen     2     (represent) symbolic figures of the French Republic. The Olympic Phryge is decorated     3     blue, white and red, with the golden Paris 2024 emblem (徽章) clearly     4     (print) on it.

The Phrygian caps that the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic mascots are based on     5     (be) a symbol of freedom since ancient times. They are     6     (repeated) used as a common reference for French people. Phrygian caps can be seen on the head of the figure Marianne in every town hall and even feature on everyday     7     (object) in France such as coins and stamps. They are an international symbol of freedom,     8     (appear) on different emblems in North and South America.

    9     motto (格言) of the Olympic Phryge and Paralympic Phryge is: “Alone we go faster, but together we go further,”     10     stands for the ways that the mascots and the people of the world can make each other better by working side-by-side.