1 . Exercise can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so there are a lot of great reasons to exercise.

Sometimes exercise can feel like a bit of a ________, something you have to do for health ________. But regular exercise can ________ your life, whether it helps you overcome stress, learn something about yourself, or help you ________ your body. Here are 2 stories from people who moved their bodies in new and sometimes ________ ways, and found out that it changed their life for the better.

I have had depression (沮丧, 抑郁) a couple of times and I also have general anxiety disorder. I found that longboarding around the city really ________ my mood the last time I was going through a ________ of depression. I don’t skate much anymore, but I have picked up ________ the past three years. All I can think about when I am climbing is climbing. It has been a ________ for my anxiety to be able to completely throw away the worries in my head and just think about getting to the top.

When I was 23, my grandpa sadly passed away. Hearing my mom’s message, I was ________. The tears couldn’t stop swimming in my eyes and I ________ control, I was just starting my track season and I decided that I should get a head start and start running. When I felt like crying or screaming or anything, I would get up and go for a ________. That year I ________ my personal best by over a minute and I ran my first half marathon. Since then I ran another half marathon, full marathon, and am ________ training for a second marathon. Running just ________ emotion for me.

2 . Yesterday, my daughter had to go to work earlier than usual. Since the gym where I work out is not far from her _________, I decided to take her to work and then go to the gym.

At quite an earlier hour, the gym was_________full of men and women of all ages, working out. I_________go to the gym at this early hour, and was_________to see so many people. It seems that many go to the gym before going to work. Some want to lose weight, others want to_________ their body, and a great number of people like to build their muscles (肌肉). I know how difficult it is for most people to start exercising. Most people know it is good for their body, _________they are too lazy to go to the gym, _________ in the morning. They_________to spend an extra hour in bed before starting their day. In the afternoon, they are too_________ after work, and want to stay at home or go out to meet friends.

If you’re one of them, you need to overcome (克服) your__________. If you__________going to the gym and exercising, you will start to like it. This usually __________when you see you’re losing weight, that your body is getting into a better shape, and that you feel stronger.

It is the same in every other area of life, when you study a foreign language, develop a new skill or a new habit and when you make up your mind to__________your dreams. It is__________at first. But when you start to see __________, everything becomes easier because you have great motivation.

3 . I have grown up in a football-loving family. My dad played until injury _________ him out. My elder sister Stevie _________ with Crewe Alexandra Girls for a year or two as a left back (后卫), just like our hero Jamie Carragher.

I remember the exact moment when I told my dad I was _________ in doing what my big sister did. I was watching the game with him in the living room and it just came out: “It makes me _________ that I can’t be a footballer.” He asked why not, and I answered, “Because I’m not a boy.”

He _________ responded by telling me that women’s football was “great” and that I could play if I wanted to. “Yeah, I suppose so,” I responded, “but no one _________ women’s football.” Looking back, I can see exactly why I felt like that.

At school, there was an unwritten _________ that sports like rugby and football were for the boys. I’d never seen a women’s football match on TV and the only _________ athletes I’d heard of were in the Olympics.

Today, the England Lionesses (母狮队) will _________ Scotland in the World Cup, and people across the world will watch it. __________ women’s football has turned out to be one of FIFA’s investments, the majority of female players in top tiers are earning under what anyone would consider a fair __________, and only £24 million prize money was awarded to the women’s World Cup victors in __________ with £315 million to the men’s. That’s a vast __________.

Maybe, the truth is: Investment is needed for female football to become more visible and become a(n) __________ respected game. It’ll mean talented, skillful female footballers being __________ by millions of homes and maybe, just maybe, a little girl believing that she can also be a Lioness one day.

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 ________ before the meet, they’ve since become friends. Neither won the race, but the display of human ________ won the day.

6 . I’m nine years old now, but I have been_________competitively since I was six. I love it, because it makes me feel good. I have a lot of_________and I can do it by just moving my legs.

One recent Sunday morning, my mum drove me to a 5km race in Minnesota. The starting line was _________because there was also a 10km race. That morning, I was running confidently and feeling_________. Then I came to a fork on the course. A woman who was directing us_________the route I thought I was meant to take and told me to go the other way. I was_________, but I had to follow her_________.

After a while I saw route directions for the 10km race. I was worried, thinking I was_________, but I had to keep going. My body started to get_________. I said to myself, “You’re almost there. Just keep__________.”

__________ I saw the finish line. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know I was running 10km and I __________it. I didn’t do this on purpose. It was a __________. I felt happy and proud. It was the first time that I had run such a(n) __________. It has made me want to compete in more 10km races. I hope my story can __________other people to run too.

8 . Fat and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket — anything with a round ball, I was _______,” he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the one always _______ in school gym classes in Devonshire, England.

It was a mountain _______ he received for his 15th birthday that _______ him. At first he went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to ride the bike along with a _______ friend. _______, Saunders set up his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed and _______. At the age of 18, he ran his first marathon.

The _______ year, he met John Ridgway and was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s School of Adventure in Scotland, where he _______ about Ridgway’s cold-water adventures. Greatly ________ , Saunders ________ that this would be his future.

In 2001, after becoming a skillful skier, Saunders ________ his first long-distance expedition (探险) towards the North Pole. It took ________ energy. He ________ frostbite (冻疮), ran into a polar bear and pushed his body to the ________, pulling his supply-load sled (雪橇) up and over rocky ice. Since then, Saunders has skied more of the North Pole by himself than any other British man. His old playmates would not believe the change.

Next October, Saunders, 27, heads south from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, a 2900-kilometre journey that has never been completed on skis.