1 . I came to the sport of triathlons late in life. I spent years accompanying my super-fit brother to triathlons and waiting for him on the hot sidelines while he swam, biked and ran for hours. Then a light bulb turned on in my brain. I could _________, too, instead of suffering intense _______.

Starting with what I knew best, I began swimming. I swam up and down, _________ my54-year-old body that my skills haven’t _________. Thankfully, muscle memory was _________, leaving me confident for the first session. For the bike part, cycling wasn’t as enjoyable as I remembered, but I didn’t _________. Tough as it was, all I cared about was finishing the ride. To exercise for the run, I joined a running group. In the beginning, I could merely run 3 miles, but I kept moving forward. I could _________ achieve the goal in a couple of months. Still, I remained rather _________. How would I swim 1.2miles, bike 56 miles and then run 13.1 miles in one day?

When I carefully _________ my crazy idea to my brother, he jumped on board immediately. The final __________ was painful and the big day eventually arrived this summer. At first, I finished swimming a few minutes ahead of my brother. However, I __________ during the bike ride. After about 22 miles, I stopped, got off my bike and __________, “I think I’m going to quit.”

“You know you won’t let yourself do that”, he replied. __________, I got back and slowly pedaled (蹬车) to the end. The run was more like a walk. My brother chose to stay with me. The sun burning, we talked, laughed and waved to the __________. We crossed the finish line together, and a great cheer went up from the crowd. It was a (n) __________ experience for me.

2 . This was the big game. The boys were _________ and excited. It was a clear night, and my son, Andy’s baseball team, which had _________ all year, had shocked the better teams by making it to this championship game. The atmosphere was _________: the other team’s slugger (强击手), a big kid, was like a snake, dangerous and ready to _________.

Nervously, I looked out Andy’s way. I was _________ to see Andy looking straight up at the night sky! Obviously he wasn’t _________ on the game. I was horrified that he wouldn’t even know the ball was coming.

“Come on, Andy. _________ out there,” I said to myself.

Thank goodness, a big kid in the other team made a mistake. Andy and I had been _________ and our team still led by one run.

Andy ran up to me at the _________. I was about to ____________ him when he said loudly, “Did you see that shooting star?”

Andy’s eyes were glowing (发光) with ____________. I paused.

“Yes,” I said. “Well, one inning (局) to go. Hit a home run (全垒打)!”

“Okay!” said Andy, and he ran back to his ____________.

I suddenly realized it was nice that my son would take time out to ____________ the wonder and beauty in life. You might be surprised by the beauty you can find when you least ____________ it. Andy hit a triple (三垒打) in that last inning. But I still wish I had ____________ that shooting star, too.

3 . Hearing the Olympics were coming to Vancouver, I decided to go for its voluntary work. I’d forgotten what it was like to put myself out there to make friends. I was glad I didn’t have anyone I knew with me because I wouldn’t have met Callie ________. Taking the risk of sitting by her started a ________. I still keep in touch with her.

As night fell before the opening ceremonies, I was stationed outside the MMC. Accents from all over ________ my ears. The games seemed to ________ the whole world. Suddenly, I could see people running toward the harbour. I turned to Callie, “Isn’t that the way to the torch (火炬)?” We looked at each other and started to run. My heart pounded as I sprinted. The air seemed to be ________ with everyone’s excitement, like a kind of electric energy pulsing through us. I’d never felt a(n) ________ like it before. Then, fireworks ________ into the air above us. Their bright colors glittered against the dark sky. I had ________ the lighting of the torch many times on TV, but to actually see it ________ was amazing. When the last of the fireworks ________, there stood the Olympic torch unveiled (揭幕) in all its ________ with its flames licking at the night sky.

Even now, I can still remember the heat from the torch. I had been one of the ________ MMC staff to walk underneath it while it burned. A beacon (灯塔) of ________ for the future. I stood for a moment right under it, listening to the ________ voices of my new friends, and I knew I’d made one of the best ________ of my life.

4 . Deserts, rainforests and wildlife are just some of the difficulty that Russell Cook says he’ll ________ as he attempts to complete the task of running the length of Africa. Starting at the most southerly point in South Africa, the 26-year-old Briton is ________ reach the most northerly point in Tunisia by Christmas—that’s the equivalent of running 360 marathons in 240 days.

Supported by a small crew of friends, Cook will pass through 16 countries in a physically demanding, mentally exhausting and challenging ________ as he raises money for both The Running Charity and Water Aid. “There’s no ________ worrying about it until it’s right in your face. We can plan and try to ________ as much as we can along the way but none of these things keep me stay up at night. Handle the day, wake up, and handle tomorrow.”

Life hasn’t always been so ________ for Cook. Like many young men, Cook ________ his mental health as a teenager, unable to find ________ in the multiple jobs he was doing to make a living. ________ new horizons, he decided to run. A friend asked Cook to run a local half marathon. He completed it. He then thought he’d try a ________ marathon a few weeks later. He ________ that as well. “For the first time in a long time, I felt ________,” says Cook. “Trying to improve myself and then putting more ________ energy out there, putting the work in, working on myself and then slowly but surely, climbing the ladder.”

His ________ for adventure is very strong. ________ his heart is beating, Cook says, he will be moving down the road.

5 . On Oct. 11, hundreds of runners competed in a cross-country race in Minnesota. Melanie Bailey should have _________ the course earlier than she did. Her _________ came because she was carrying a _________ across the finish line.

As reported by a local newspaper, Bailey was more than two-thirds of the way through her _________ when a runner in front of her began crying in pain. She _________ to help her fellow runner, Danielle Lenoue. Bailey took her arm to see if she could walk forward with _________. She couldn’t. Bailey then _________ to let Lenoue climb onto her back and carried her all the way to the finish line, then another 300 feet to where Lenoue could get _________ attention.

Once there, Lenoue was _________ and later taken to a hospital, where she learned that she had serious injuries in one of her knees. She would have struggled with extreme __________ to make it to that aid checkpoint without Bailey’s help.

As for Bailey, she is more __________ about why her act is considered a big __________. “She was just crying. I couldn’t __________ her,” Bailey told the reporter. “I feel like I was just doing the right thing.”

Although the two young women were strangers before the __________, they’ve since become friends. Neither won the race, but the __________ of human kindness won the day.

6 . Marcus is a handsome and athletic kid. He plays tennis and _________ the state tournament every year. Marcus’s neighbor, Conrad, is also _________ to compete, but he has rheumatoid arthritis (类风湿性关节炎). Although it pains him just to walk, he _________ painful days at school walking to the sports field. He loves watching his school compete so he doesn’t _________ a game.

Marcus has known Conrad since primary school. They’ve always been _________. He sees Conrad in pain and his _________ at not being able to play sports. So, every day alter school, Marcus _________ his classmates to go to Conrad’s for a moment of discussion about the game competition. The discussion is as _________ as a real high school game, which makes Conrad forget the hurt.

Finally, the doctors found a new _________ to reduce the pain. Conrad walks without much pain, and then begins running, but he still has to learn the __________ of running. After a childhood of walking carefully and taking __________ steps, Conrad has to train his walking like a kid again and stay in shape. He pushes himself every day，building his lungs and doing leg lifts repeatedly for his leg __________. He knows what pain feels like, but running for Conrad is no longer __________.

To Conrad’s delight, he gets a chance to join the cross country team. Conrad doesn’t win, not once, but Marcus is there, __________ for him who always finishes in the middle of the competitors, breathing in wind and waving his hands __________.

7 . As her father guided her ________ down the road alongside the swimming pool, 12-year-old Tina Fisher fiddled (整理、摆弄) with the folds of the borrowed wet suit she was wearing and took a few ________ breaths.

This is a girl who loves the ________ of water flowing around her limbs (四肢), who until recently was ________ her underwater swimming, and who takes every opportunity to spend time in the water.

But this was the first time Tina had been anywhere near a pool since the otherwise ________ June 2 when she was playing with a friend. Just 90 minutes after the preteen felt pain in her legs — the first symptom of a spinal stroke — she became paralyzed (瘫痪) from the waist ________ .

Now she was going to try something she’d never ________ even when she’d had the use of her legs: She was going to take her first scuba diving lesson.

Tina’s father, Dennis Fisher, slipped into the pool and helped Occupational Therapist Kaitlin Macdonald ________ his daughter into the water. She lay ________ , rested her head on the surface and, for a few brief moments, ________ her eyes. Then she did something that made MacDonald smile. “Tina,” she said, “look at your leg.” Ever so slightly, Tina was moving her right leg. It was ________ a few inches, but still — Tina’s mind was telling her leg what to do, and her leg was ________ .

“A lot of times, we’ll see movement ________ in the water,” MacDonald said, “It means a capacity (能力) is there that we can build on, ________ it’s still weak.”

For Tina, it felt great to just be back in the pool. She wrapped her arms around her father and briefly lay her head on his chest. Then she turned to Macdonald and indicated she was ready to swim the ________ of the pool.

“OK,” Macdonald said, “Here we go.”

8 . Last week, we went to the park again. My little five-year-old daughter Ruthie seemed _________ standing at the base of the huge rock climbing wall. On our first visit, Ruthie had _________ me to let her try climbing the wall, but I had _________ her, afraid that she was undersized. _________, this time the tiny girl made it to the top, while kids twice her size _________ about halfway up. When she touched the _________, I asked, “How do you do that?”

“I just do it,” she said with a shrug, and started on her second pass. Seemingly, if l learnt the _________, I could climb the wall myself. _________ I doubted if I could even do it, with a little _________ I entered the arena (运动场). As I began my __________, I was excited by my own __________ for trying something so difficult. Then, only ten feet up, my __________ and my toes started to tire, and there was __________ no place to rest. My __________ disappeared with the anxiety that I was going to __________ and fall.

__________ will lock up our muscles and minds. To perform well, we have to stay relaxed. “Just do it,” I __________ myself, climbing bravely. One, two, three----I was at the top. I did it!

That day on the rock wall __________ me in my life. Whenever __________ envelope me in icy anxiety, I continue moving by __________ myself of the secret of doing something hard and scary: Just do it.

9 . Golden Generation

A national team, mostly consisting of teenagers, pushed China to its biggest-ever medal achievement at the Winter Olympics. At the same time, a series of breakthroughs at the Games _________ the country’s emergence as a much more well-rounded force on the ice and snow.

_________ the heroics of teenage sensation Gu Ailing and seasoned aerials(空中技巧滑雪)masters Xu Mengtao and Qi Guangpu, China _________ four gold to top the freestyle skiing medal standings for the first time after its Winter Olympic debut in 1980.

Gu Ailing also became the first athlete _________, and the youngest _________, to win three medals(golds in Big Air, halfpipe and silver in slopestyle)in three different freeski _________ at the Olympics, throwing her to international super-star reputation as the _________ of Beijing 2022.

Needless to say, another teenager star, Su Yiming, also became a _________   name by winning China’s first snowboarding gold medal in Big Air after claiming a silver in slopestyle. Su’s _________ helped the host finish a highest-ever third on the Games’ overall medal standings, ____________ nine gold, four silver and two bronze-its biggest-ever medal achievement at the Winter Games. China’s ____________ best was a tally of 11, including five gold, at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

“The ____________ of the new generation on the Olympic stage, even seeing the emergence of teenagers, ____________ a great future for winter sports in our country,” said Li Yang, manager of China’s Big Air, slopestyle and halfpipe national programs.

“With winter sports becoming popular in our country amid the fast social and ____________ development, I believe more and more young people will ____________ skis and snowboards to enjoy the sport, just as young as Su and Gu did when they were little, which will ____________ expand the talent pool for our future national programs,”Li said.

The Beijing Winter Games also ____________ the first time that China’s snow sports teams outperformed the country’s traditionally strong ice sports squads in the medal numbers, securing investment in high-performance training programs and ____________ the foundation for even better results at the next Winter Games in Italy.

“____________ we keep the tendency going, I believe we will ____________ a stronger performance in four years' time at the next Olympics in 2026,” said Yang Yang, China’s first Winter Olympic gold medalist, in women’s short-track speed skating at the 2002 Games.

10 . Cody Wilkins sat on the bench, while his soccer teammates were scoring goals on the field. It had been a(n) ______ high school year for him. He was the only freshman on the team. He most never got to play, and he felt like a______.

“My confidence was shot. I thought maybe I wasn’t as good as my coaches thought I was during tryout. I thought maybe I should ______.” Cody says.

Cody suffered once he discovered he wasn’t a good soccer player. But he ______ to keep going. “The struggle I______made me want to work harder,” he says. “However talented you are, you can always ______ in sports.”

Then Cody took advantage of his ______ on the bench to watch his more skilled and experienced teammates play the game, and by the time he was a junior, he had improved so much that he was ______ captain of his team. He is now a senior and is being ______ to play soccer for several colleges.

If you base your ______just on whether you win or lose, you will never be happy. Winning is always ______ because there is always another ______ waiting for you.

No one is______. But you should learn about your strengths and weaknesses and know how to______ from failure. Once you accept that losing something isn’t the end of your world, you can get on with the business of living your life and learning from it. In the long run, this is _______.