1 . I was first going into this final day, the Junior Sled Dog Championship. We’d trained two years and wanted to beat Blake. I knelt down to pat Kenai and my hands ______ from nerves and excitement. Kenai tipped up his face to lick my chin. “You are ______, aren’t you?”

Just before the count down started, Blake shot me a _____ grin, hands trembling too. Then I heard, “Go!”______ I could yell   “Hike!”, Kenai leaped forward. The rest of the dogs _____ after. We started last. We flew down the long hill. Then we ______ a corner. I leaned to keep the sled steady. Kenai saw Blake’s team before I did. His tail flew up, and he ______ . Seeing his tongue still flopping forward, I let him go all out. We closed the ______. A bridge later, we inched closer. On the next hill, Kenai drew even with Blake’s sled and then we passed it.

____ our sled hit a branch. The runners caught. I lost my ______ and fell off the sled. Witnessing the sled come to a stop, I struggled through the deep snow to Kenai. I ____. His shoulder was bleeding.

“Kenai! No!” My voice came out a howl. Kenai ______ to stand. He looked at me, his blue eyes______ to keep on. He would do it, too. For one frozen moment I saw myself on the winner’s stand with the trophy (奖杯). But no. I bent and gently ______ Kenai in a blanket.

The race vet examining Kenai, I watched Blake accept the trophy. Kenai squirming in my lap, I leaned over upon him. Just at that moment, I felt a warm tongue on my wet cheek. I smiled and realized that I had the ____ that really counted.

5 . American runner Isaiah Jewett took a deep breath. Entering the final stage of the men’s 800-meter semifinal race. Jewett _________ to finish in the top two and make it to the finals. And he was in the best possible position to achieve his aim.

“I was like ‘Okay, there’s a _________ to do this. Let’s do this,’” Jewett said.

That is when something unexpected _________. When Jewett got to the turn, Botswana runner Nijel Amos tripped (绊倒) him from behind.

“It was _________. I didn’t even believe it was me even though I was on the ground,” Jewett said. “I felt so _________.”

For Jewett though, showing good sportsmanship was more _________ than winning a medal. Growing up, he was exposed (使接触) to the world of anime (动画), which taught him valuable _________ such as never giving up and always finishing a race.

That is exactly what Jewett did with Amos.

“I just _________ that he was sad, and I shut off how I was feeling. I knew I couldn’t help him in any way but I _________ to do the best I could.” Jewett said.

After the __________, Jewett got up and helped Amos to his feet. Amos apologized for his __________, and Jewett put his arm around his competitor.

“Hey man, let’s __________ this race together; we’re not done yet,” Jewett told Amos. __________ , they crossed the finish line.

“It’s okay to compete but it’s also important to show that you’re a __________. That’s the way you show your heroism by __________ each other along the way and finishing the race together,” Jewett said.

6 . You might say I found marathoning, step by step. Or perhaps it found me. I was _____________ an athlete growing up. In fact, I have a hard time _____________ that term to myself even today.

It started when I joined a group of women in my neighborhood for a daily three-mile walk. At first it was _____________. But soon, my body adjusted and I wanted _____________. Before long, I was running 5 miles. Then I set a goal to run a half marathon. And I did complete the Covered Bridges Half Marathon. I thought, “Now what?” I started to _____________ a marathon.

It so happened that I _____________ a meeting one night and listened to the speaker and coach, Rick Muhr, and was so _____________ by his words. I told him that I had signed up for the Ocean State Marathon, just a week away, and that I really didn’t believe I could _____________. Rick locked eyes with me and said, “Trish, you’ve done enough training. You’ll finish!”

I never had someone _____________ me like that, let alone a real, live coach. He gave me the ________________ I needed. I set out to run my ________________ marathon and completed it in 4:25:00. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of nearly a decade of marathon and distance running.

Running a marathon isn’t for everybody. But it is for anybody, anybody who wants to ________________ the unreachable and to take that ________________ into the rest of their life. When you cross the finish line you may never have a ________________ picture of what you are made of and capable of accomplishing. Your ________________ of the world and, more importantly, of yourself will forever be changed!

7 . At the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Derek Redmond was a 400-meter runner for the UK. The _______ started well. In the semifinals(半决赛), Derek was far ahead of his _______ . But shortly before the halfway mark,he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right leg and _______ . Derek struggled to his feet and began hopping(蹦)on his left foot. The crowd stood up and cheered as he hopped _______ toward the finish line.

Then a figure _______ from the crowd: Derek’s dad, Jim Redmond. Waving off officials who tried to get him off the _______ , he ran up to his son and put an arm around his waist. Derek _______ and wept on his father’s shoulder. _______ , father and son walked the final meters of the race. The Olympic

Committee called the finish one of the most _______ moments in Olympic history. And twenty years later, they were invited to take part in the nationwide torch(火炬)relay for the 2012 Games in London.

“I saw my son having a(n) __________ and it was my duty to help”, he told CBS News in 2012. “I actually went on the track to try to stop him from __________ himself further. But he was __________ to finish the race. So I offered him a shoulder to support him.”

“He was telling me that I had nothing to __________ and that I didn’t need to do this, but I told him I was going to __________ . Then he said that we would do it together,” Derek Redmond remembered at the same interview. “So we did, and I hopped over the line in __________ .”

8 . Five days a week I go out for a run—a short and slow run. The only way I can _______ to it is to keep it a habit. It’s a spiritual approach to making exercise a habit.

We’re meant to treat the _______ with respect, doing all we can within our power to keep it _______ and serviceable.

I have a wild heart history. I have _______ heart surgery twice in my life. After each procedure, I signed up for cardiac rehab (心脏康复) where I worked with a nurse, a physical therapist (治疗专家) and got exercise three days a week, building back my _______ and my confidence.

The last time I wanted to _______ running, the nurse and therapist urged me on, for running is _______ for my body and my soul.

Their _______ was a reminder: keep it up. _______ jogging up and down hills, I’m not out to ________ any races. Recently, as I came up the hill running with a friend, a neighbor cried out, “You look like the last two finishers of the marathon.”

“You must really ________ to run,” people will say to me. Love is a too ________ word. But I love to finish a run. That feels good.

The only way I can do it is make it a habit. Sometimes I do it ________ in the morning. As the weather gets cold, I prefer going later in the day when I won’t ________. I can learn and grow while running.

Good habits are, in turn, habit-forming. I find it ________ if I simply make it a rule, trying a spiritual approach to making running a habit.

9 . Jacqueline’s dream of being a world-class runner began when she was a child in Kenya. She soon realized she had to _________ full-time to improve her performance, which meant not being able to work to help support her family. But she was _________ that the training would make her perfect and she could bring home prize money.

Jacqueline traveled to China to _________ in the Zheng-kai marathon knowing she had a good shot at _________ the race, but more importantly, the $10,000 prize that went with it. She was leading the women’s _________ when a male runner _________ the water station at the 20-kilometer mark. The man was running at a good pace but had trouble _________ water because a birth defect (缺陷) had left him without hands. He _________ to drink from the slippery plastic bottles. But any assistance from fans or race officials would result in his _________. Jacqueline noticed the man and __________ knew that he needed help. She __________ a water bottle and helped him get the fluid his body needed to __________ the race. Then she ran at his __________ with the bottle and helped him sip (小口喝) while they strode along.

Jacqueline missed out on first place, but she __________ with something more important: her humanity. When asked about the bigger __________, she said that money isn’t everything.