1 . If this time last year you had told me that an exercise bike would save me, I’d have_________you were wrong. I’d have protested that I’m not athletic at all. My coordination is lacking and my_________is like tortoise.

In Grade 7, my physical education teacher watched me, eyebrow_________, as I tried my best to follow the gymnastic training. “You’re doing pretty well in my class,” he said, “for someone with no_________for sports at all.”

In high school, I wasn’t_________for a single team. I was bookish and slow, and that_________of being better suited to quiet reading and leisurely walks_________with me for a long time.

I discovered jogging in my late 20s, and I enjoyed the feeling of quiet accomplishment—without the fear of_________teammates. I tried yoga and always prioritized_________pursuits over physical ones.

It was,__________, my gradually worsening mental condition that finally forced me to rethink about exercising. This winter, under pandemic, I found myself__________under the weight of exhaustion. I knew__________had to change. I needed an outlet to release the__________of months of online conferencing and on-and-off solo parenting at home. Jogging in the morning wasn’t enough to__________it.

I__________an exercise bike and hoped to have positive results. Since early March, I’ve hardly__________a day on my bike. I’m not the fastest, but I stick to it. I’m finally learning that movement isn’t__________about athleticism (运动才能). More than anything, it’s the feeling of accomplishment when you insist on something__________outside of your comfort zone.

Athletes find glory in sports. For the rest of us, the__________is more personal: better sleep, improved mood and boosted confidence. It was never about talent. That’s what I wish my physical education teacher had told me. If only he’d said, “You’re doing really well in my class. Look at your__________.”

2 . British Cycling had recently hired Dave Brailsford as its new director. At the time, professional cyclists in Great Britain had ________ nearly one hundred years of mediocrity(平庸). In fact, their________   had been so poor that one of the top bike companies in Europe ________ to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw the British people using their bikes.

What made Brailsford different from previous coaches was his________ of searching for a tiny improvement in everything they do. The whole principle came from the idea that if you________   everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, improve it by 1 percent and you will get a________ increase when you put them all together.

Brailsford and his coaches began by making small________. They redesigned the bike seats to make them more________. They asked riders to wear electrically heated over-shorts to ________ ideal muscle temperature while riding and used biofeedback sensors to ________how each athlete responded to a particular workout.

But they didn’t stop there.They________ to find 1 percent improvements in overlooked areas. They hired a(n)________ to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the ________ of catching a cold. They even painted the ________ of the team truck white, which helped them ________little bits of dust that would normally slip by ________ but could affect the performance of the________tuned bikes.

As these and hundreds of other small improvements were ________, the results came faster than anyone could have ________. Just five years after Brailsford took over, they________ the road and track cycling events in all the important Games.