1 . My First Marathon(马拉松)
A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.
I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do either well. He later informed me that I was “not athletic”.
The idea that I was “not athletic” stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!
The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.
Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces(鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!
At mile 3, I passed a sign: “GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!”
By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.
By mile 21, I was starving!
As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.
I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.
Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a “marathon winner”.
Why did the author mention the P.E. class in his 7th year?
| A．To acknowledge the support of his teacher. |
| B．To amuse the readers with a funny story. |
| C．To show he was not talented in sports. |
| D．To share a precious memory. |
2 . My First Marathon(马拉松)
A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.
I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do either well. He later informed me that I was “not athletic”.
The idea that I was “not athletic” stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!
The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.
Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces (鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!
At mile 3, I passed a sign: “GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!”
By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.
By mile 21, I was starving!
As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.
I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.
Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels (世俗标签), I can now call myself a “marathon winner”.
1. A month before the marathon, the author ________.| A．was well trained |
| B．felt scared |
| C．made up his mind to run |
| D．lost hope |
| A．He made it. |
| B．He quit halfway. |
| C．He got the first prize. |
| D．He walked to the end. |
3 . About a dozen women have gathered as their instructor guides them through the moves. “Backstroke!” Jean Bailey directs from her chair, raising her arms high, as the women of Elk Ridge quickly begin arm rotations. Everyone puts in top effort.
Bailey, who is 102, has been teaching them four times a week in the hallway of the second floor for about three years. “When I get old, I’ll quit,” said Bailey. Some of her regulars have arthritis (关节炎) that limits their movements, but they can do the stretching exercises comfortably and benefit from them, said Bailey, who herself often uses a walker.
“After attending the class, we’ve gotten pretty close up there on our floor. One of us would do something for anybody. We really keep track of each other,” Phyllis Black, 87, said. She lives down the hall from Bailey; if she skips them, she feels stiff. “She’s a very nice neighbor, and she’s a good friend also. She’s very talented.”
When her children were young, Bailey became a florist (花匠) — a practice she still enjoys as a hobby. She buys artificial flowers and makes bouquets (花束) for the clubhouse and some residents. Laura Stuart calls her the “queen bee”. “She brings her expertise in floral arrangements and is always doing beautiful arrangements,” Stuart said. “She brings that to us, and it’s just a blessing that she’s still here with us to even do such a complex type of floral arrangement.”
At Elk Ridge, residents can participate in fitness activities like a walking club, tai chi and working out in a fitness room. But Bailey’s ladies seem to prefer her class because of her warm and fun personality, and the gentleness of the stretches for people who have mobility challenges, says Sean Tran, operations director at Elk Ridge. “More than anything, her general outlook on life…is just remarkable,” he said about Bailey. “She’s the nicest, most thoughtful, caring person that I probably ever met. Nothing is going to stop her,” Tran said. “She’s going to keep going, no matter what. And others look at her and think: ‘If she can do this at 102, I can do this at my age, whatever it is.’”
1. What scene does the first paragraph describe?| A．A game practice. | B．A dancing session. |
| C．A swimming training. | D．A fitness class. |
| A．They have deepened the women’s friendship. |
| B．Some women often skip the exercise classes. |
| C．Old women are gifted in exercise. |
| D．Some attendees feel stiff after the classes. |
| A．She has a hobby of growing flowers. |
| B．She is expert at arranging flowers. |
| C．She is a good florist. |
| D．She sells man-made flowers to others. |
| A．Bailey organizes various activities, |
| B．Bailey makes her attendees stretch gently. |
| C．Bailey inspires other people to exercise. |
| D．Bailey remarks on the life of others. |
4 . In early 2018, I was training for the London Marathon—the first and only marathon I would ever run in my life. I had treated myself to an expensive fitness watch that tracked my time, pace and splits.
At the end of my final training run—an exhausting 21 miles (34km) —I threw myself down on the floor the moment I got home, only to see my watch had failed me. Twenty-one miles briefly flashed on the screen before it went blank and disappeared for ever. I screamed in pain. That tragic image of me crying on my living room floor pretty much sums up my relationship with exercise tracking technology.
It can be a total joy to watch your data change on running apps as you get stronger and faster. I once got a kick out of it, but at some point it became a stick I used to punish myself. I would watch my pace, compare it with other people’s or criticize myself for not doing it 30 seconds faster. I never really recognized exercise tracking as a problem. It seemed to me that tracking was the route to self-improvement, and the point was to improve, wasn’t it? The point was to be better.
In the past year, the concept of “being better” has taken on a different meaning. My mental health dropped, and things that were once easy such as brushing my teeth became unimaginably difficult. Being better stopped meaning getting faster or stronger. It meant taking care of myself and feeling some joy in a day. Once I started getting better, I reflected on what in my life made me happy and what did not. So, I stopped tracking my runs and simply deleted years’ worth of data that was once very important to me and now meant nothing.
What has become very clear to me since I quit tracking my runs is that I genuinely love doing them. I run around my local park with a silly little smile on my face. I love it so much. But I do not love running quickly. I do not like races. I do not want to be pushed to be faster. Things I notice about my runs now include: how my legs feel and how my mind feels afterwards-clear and focused. I notice dogs, the smell of the wild plants along the canal and the sunshine (OK, wind and rain) on my face.
I am better. Or sometimes I am worse. But either way I’m slowly plodding along, and that’s good enough.
1. The author cried after the final training run because she ________.| A．had to stop working out | B．became physically worn out |
| C．lost the data on the watch | D．felt a sharp pain in the legs |
| A．a fun hobby for enjoyment | B．a strong need for recognition |
| C．a method of escaping punishment | D．a way of being a better runner |
| A．Getting pleasure out of winning races. | B．Being more focused on her life goal. |
| C．Freeing herself from demanding tasks. | D．Improving her overall well-being. |
| A．Adjustment brings happiness. | B．Passion is the key to success. |
| C．Sports contribute to happiness. | D．Success equals self-improvement. |
5 . A nine-year-old boy has set a new 5km parkrun world record for his age group. Louis Robinett, a member of the Poole Runners junior athletics club, shaved 13 seconds off the previous world record, which was set in California in 2017, after he crossed the line in 17 minutes and 40 seconds.
Louis, who broke the record at the Poole parkrun in Dorset on Saturday, said, “I’m on top of the world right now. It’s a huge deal to break a world record. I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family and the team at Poole Runners.”
Louis was accompanied on the parkrun by Dion Garner, a member of his athletics club, as all under-11s in the 5km event must run within arm’s length of an adult. Garner said of Louis’s achievement, “His natural talent, combined with his dedication and spirit, is mind-blowing. He loves the sports and has really practiced a lot.” A spokesman for Poole Runners said, “With his new world record, Louis has raised the bar for young athletes everywhere. This isn’t just a win for Louis, it’s a new benchmark (标准) for youth sports, inspiring children all over the world to aim higher.”
Parkrun was started by 13 friends as a weekly event in Bushy Park, southwest London, in 2004. By 2015 more than 80,000 people were gathering in parks around the world each Saturday to participate in a parkrun. Only three years later about a quarter of a million people were taking part in parkruns each week, in 1,500 events spread across 20 countries. In comparison, 48,000 runners took part in the London Marathon this year.
1. What is the previous 5km parkrun world record?| A．17 minutes and 27 seconds. | B．17 minutes and 23 seconds. |
| C．17 minutes and 40 seconds. | D．17 minutes and 53 seconds. |
| A．Surprised and thankful. | B．Modest and satisfied. |
| C．Grateful and proud. | D．Thrilled and shocked. |
| A．Effort. | B．Persistence. | C．Determination. | D．Strength. |
| A．Parkrun is ancient but increasingly popular. | B．Standards are needed to make parkrun formal. |
| C．Parkrun originates from pals’ run during the week. | D．Over 20 countries are competing to host a parkrun. |
6 . Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, waiting for a few latecomers. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a roughly 30-minute jog and an occasional lecture. That’s right - during some runs, one of them delivers a talk. Topics range from the brain to Bitcoin.
But on this day last January, it would not be their normal run. The first clue that something was off was the man who sprinted past them. “Running at an amazing pace,” Cassidy told Runner’s World admiringly. Cassidy discovered why the sprinter was so fleet of foot when another man ran by, yelling, “Help! He took my phone and laptop!”
At that, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, trailing the suspect down the streets of Philadelphia until he ducked into a construction site. The runners split up. Cassidy ran around to the far side of the site to cut the thief off while the others wandered the neighborhood hoping he had dumped the loot (赃物) in a backyard.
No luck. So they decided to ask residents whether they’d seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one row house, they were in for a surprise. Unknown to them, he had already emerged from the construction site - and was hiding behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the suspect darted out from behind the bush and right into the arms of campus police, who’d joined the chase shortly behind the runners.
The members of this running group are not hard-core athletes. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise. “Running is typically a useless sport where you turn fat cells into heat,” Cassidy told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “But occasionally it can be useful, and here was one of those opportunities.”
1. Why do the group members gather together?| A．To do some stretching. | B．To have a regular run. |
| C．To deliver a lecture. | D．To cover some topics. |
| A．the assistance of the runners | B．the owner of the row house |
| C．the campus police on patrol | D．the joint efforts of the people |
| A．Athletic and generous. | B．Courageous and ambitious. |
| C．Helpful and humorous. | D．Thoughtful and demanding. |
7 . Ida Keeling had grown up poor in Harlem and done hard, grinding work in factories during the Great Depression. She had lost her husband early to a heart attack, and two of her four children—both of her sons—died in accidents. Keeling had sunk into a deep depression. Her health had begun to slide and her daughter, Cheryl, began to worry that she soon might be losing her mother as well.
Keeling’s daughter is a lifelong athlete. That may be what would pull her mother out from under her dark cloud. She suggested a run. Not just a jog around the block, but an official run. At the time, Ida Keeling was 67.
It had been decades since Keeling had done any running, and she would later recall that the first “mini-run” was wonderful. “I just threw off all my bad memories,” Keeling says. She hasn’t stopped running since, and it’s no longer the difficulty it was during that first meet. Since then, Keeling has set records for 60 meters in the 95-99 age group, and in 100 meters for the over 100 group. “I was just exercising,” she says, “and now I’m all over the world.”
When she’s not running, she’s working out. She’s in the gym three to four days a week, running, working out with weights and pedaling on the exercise bike—and even exercising while she’s cooking. Part of her healthy diet is an occasional dose of red wine mixed with her coffee or water to aid blood circulation. She’s written a book about her experiences, titled Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race Against Time. Her philosophy is also fit for a runner: “Every day is another day forward.”
1. Why did Keeling start to run at an old age?| A．She wanted her daughter getting out of dark cloud. |
| B．She wanted to learn from her daughter. |
| C．Cheryl persuaded her to do so. |
| D．Cheryl wanted her to be a lifelong runner. |
| A．Pleased | B．Curious. | C．Annoyed. | D．Proud. |
| A．She used to live a hard life. | B．She spends much time writing. |
| C．She is very fond of cooking. | D．She is very active in sports. |
| A．Early hard life of Keeling | B．The benefit of running for Keeling’s later life |
| C．The significance of caring for old people | D．Every day is precious for old people |
8 . I glanced to my left and right as I got ready at the starting line. The sight of other competitors who had confident and fierce-looking faces got me goose bumps and I was even more
“On your mark, get set... Go!” shouted the race official. I pushed myself forward with all my
“No, it cannot end like this. I have to
Out of despair, I gazed up at the finishing line. Just then, a kind competitor
“Thank you...” I whispered
She lent me her shoulder for support, and I
Even though I never got the chance to learn her name, I will always remember her as the one who stepped forward to help me when I was in
| A．tired | B．confused | C．nervous | D．regretful |
| A．joy | B．might | C．trouble | D．shame |
| A．attempt | B．hesitate | C．wait | D．pretend |
| A．organize | B．evaluate | C．appreciate | D．complete |
| A．defeated | B．inspired | C．shocked | D．relaxed |
| A．waved | B．extended | C．showed | D．pointed |
| A．proudly | B．cautiously | C．awkwardly | D．gratefully |
| A．moved | B．fell | C．bent | D．looked |
| A．partnership | B．sportsmanship | C．leadership | D．friendship |
| A．anger | B．doubt | C．need | D．silence |
During the opening ceremony of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, there was a surprise
The American superstar
10 . Everyone knows the benefits of exercise: stronger muscles, more energy, weight management.
lf your primary aim is to improve your mood, the bar for what counts as exercise is far lower than itis for weight loss or fitness gains. You can see very large mental benefits with low-intensity exercise.
When any movement can bring benefits, the best activity is one you like to do ---- whether that's swimming, team sports or dancing.
Is it possible to overdo it? The answer is yes. A minority will even develop clinical depression as a result of overtraining. But these bad effects are restricted to serious athletes.
| A．Consistency is the key to mood lifting. |
| B．So the type of workout you do really matters. |
| C．A mood boost is often considered an added bonus. |
| D．You can seek out an activity that makes you feel good. |
| E．For the rest of us, any movement can only be beneficial. |
| F．What's more, moderate exercise can have huge mental benefits. |
| G．It's not like the longer or harder you exercise, the better you feel. |
