1 . Boston Marathon runners in recent years may have seen a smiling furry face around the two-mile mark. It’s Spencer, the therapy (治疗) dog, who became known as an unofficial mascot (吉祥物) for the marathon, He’s shown up on the sidelines every year since 2015—rain or shine.

One particularly rainy marathon catapulted Spencer’s fame, In 2018, his owner, Richard Powers, decided to put a bright yellow rain coat on the dog, making him stand out even more than he usually does. Photos of Spencer, who holds a “Boston Strong” flag in his mouth, went viral, and he became an inspiration to runners and onlookers alike, During the marathon, some runners stop in their tracks to take selfies with the dog-the line sometimes growing to 20 runners long.

But in 2020, Spencer was diagnosed with a tumor (肿瘤). His owner was worried, but Spencer is a fighter. He got the care he needed and survived. In 2021, he was back on the course and it was really kind of a miracle and that really hit home to a lot of people.

Unfortunately, Spencer caught another tumor—this one cancerous—and Spencer began chemotherapy. Powers didn’t think his beloved dog would make it out to the marathon of 2022. “Miraculously, he’s still here with us and an even bigger miracle, he was strong enough to go to the marathon,” he said.

After recovering, Spencer was back to work—not just at the marathon—but as a therapy dog, alongside his companion, Penny, who is also a golden therapy dog. Powers takes his two therapy dogs around to schools, hospitals and senior living centers.

“He’s a gift to us and we’re very lucky to have him. He’s too good so we want to share him with as many people as we possibly can. He does make a difference,” Powers said.

2 . Ian Happ is a professional baseball player for a baseball team in the United States. When he first started playing with the team in 2017, he was looking for pictures to hang in his home. An idea and an unlikely partnership with a British artist came from that simple desire.

Happ wanted to show Wrigley Field, the team’s ballpark, from a different artistic vision. He said that many baseball fans had been to Wrigley Field but had never seen what the ballpark looked like, from the field. He thought looking up from the field was such a cool experience that he intended to bring that to more fans. So, from his point of view, he let the British artist Patrick Vale create three large drawings of Wrigley Field. Instead of having pictures hung in his home, the partnership led to something quite different.

Happ’s views of Wrigley Field became the project, Through My Eyes, in which fans could purchase prints. The money made in this way went toward those people in need. The drawings by Vale became See What I See, an exhibition at a Chicago’s gallery. The show lasted a period of time.

Happ ever brought Vale to Chicago in September of 2018 and showed him around Wrigley Field. Vale knew little about the sport of baseball. But he understood the connection fans had with Wrigley Field. Happ had to explain to Vale the importance of the 400-foot sign in the center field and the famous manual scoreboard. He had to teach him the correct positioning of the players. He also explained what it felt like standing in the field under the bright lights with a loud crowd.

Vale took pictures and used them to help him create drawings in great detail. He was very modest and would send rough drawings to Happ, who would mark them up in red ink, like a teacher, with suggestions. It was in this way that their cooperation was so successful.

4 . The world of sports can be challenging. Sometimes, a simple ______ can take on an extremely ______ meaning. That’s what happened to a teenage runner whose show of ______stretched far beyond a track meet.

Ella_______ the race of her life. She thought it was a good feeling to be able to ______something she had worked for in her whole life. So she managed to take an active part in ______ and won many awards. She was the state ______ in the 1,600 meter race, the first girl to win a track and field title in more than 20 years.

However, what people remembered wasn’t her ______ but a race where she finished last. It was when she was ______ to finish the race that something ______ happened. Ella said, “I was ______, some meters to go. A girl was not far in front of me, and suddenly, I saw her ______.” What she did next not only ______ up another runner’s day but also the entire stadium. She stopped at the bend to pick up the girl and ______ her out. Soon, all the other runners went past them. ______, she insisted on supporting the girl to the finish line.

“It was really ______ and people were moved into tears by what Ella had done,” said Ella’s coach. ______ failure, Ella felt very ______ in her heart. When asked why she gave up winning to assist the other, she said, “If we work to get to the state meet, we ______ to finish no matter who we are. I just wanted her to make it no matter what happened.” On Ella’s shirt is a slogan: Part Speed, Part Patience, All Heart. It ______ sums up the girl’s characteristics who found victory while finishing last.

5 . From its origins in the California hills in the US to its acceptance on urban streets worldwide, the history of skateboarding spans (跨越) seven decades over which it has developed from an unwelcome sport to an Olympic event in 2020. Now, a London exhibition is to show the path from those humble homemade boards of the 1950s to today’s hi-tech professional models.

The exhibition will feature about 90 rare and unique boards along with more than 100 other related objects, including safety equipment and magazines. Half of the skateboards will be on loan from the Skateboarding Hall of Fame Museum in California. A highlight will be a 1967 Bilbo board produced by European Surfing Company, which was set up at Newquay in Cornwall in southwestern England in 1965 and marketed the first skateboards in the UK.

Also on display will be the famous skateboarder Tony Hawk’s first professional model, from 1982, with its adaptations for the vert style of skateboarding which uses vertical ramps (垂直坡面) rather than level ground; early homemade boards from 1950s California modeled on the design of roller-skates and surfboards; and the first two models to feature a kicktail — the raised tail enabling skaters to turn or balance the board on the back wheels.

It will also feature Laura Thornhill’s Logan Earth Ski from the 1970s, the first women’s professional model. Sky Brown, who at 13 won bronze for Team Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is represented through her first professional model, the Sky Brown&. Skateistan Almost model.

“Skateboards, often misunderstood as being just toys, are now hi-tech products responding to constantly changing urban environments,” said Jonathan Olivares, the show’s director. “This exhibition is centred around a single question: how did the skateboard get to positioning the skateboard as a truly unique object.”