1 . Simply finishing a marathon is a big achievement, but one woman in Thailand didn’t just run all 26.2 miles — she also _________ a little dog, Chombueng!

Runner Klongsanun was _________ a local marathon on Jan. 20th, 2023 when around mile seven, she noticed a seemingly _________ young dog along the roadside.

While other runners reportedly passed by the dog, Klongsanun, a dog lover, decided to pick it up and finish the _________. However, she still had 19 more miles to go. For anyone running a marathon, carrying any kind of _________ for 19 miles can make a marathon even more _________ and tiring. But instead of putting the dog down or _________ it to a looker-on to hold, the _________ Klongsanun crossed the finish line with the tiny dog in her arms.

After the race, Klongsanun _________ to take the dog home. Klongsanun even went back to the area where she first __________ Chombueng to make sure there weren’t any other dogs in need of __________, but she didn’t find any other animals.

“It was __________ a challenge to run almost 20 miles carrying a dog. __________, I did it because he is pitiful,” said Klongsanun. It looks like Chombueng has found a(n) __________ family while Klongsanun has a marathon __________ she’ll never forget.

2 . Students in our school have one thing in common — an interest in sports. According to their different intentions in doing sports, they fall into three groups.

Many students go to the playground when they feel ______ after a few hours of study. These students put much more stress on their study efficiency (效率) than the ______ of sports. They just want to go back to their classrooms from the playground with a clearer and quicker ______. Thus they don’t ______ care whether they can enjoy themselves on the playground. Most of them choose long-distance running, the kind of exercise ______ few real sports enthusiasts like. So this group of students can be ______ regarded as study-oriented (以学习为导向的) participants.

Students that make up the second group are ______ sports lovers. Sometimes they even ______ their studies for a match. They participate in the sport that ______ them most, not caring whether it is beneficial to their health. They may be called fun-oriented sports participants.

The third group want beauty from sports. Boys want to become strong and good-looking; girls want to be ______ and graceful. Those who consider sports the only way of ______ weight also belong to this group. They are very careful in choosing the kind of exercise they do, and are afraid that certain sports may ______ their body shapes. Horizontal bars (单杠) and parallel bars (双杠) are the boys’ choice, and the hula hoop (呼啦圈) is now the girls’ favorite. The ______ name for this group may be beauty-oriented sports participants.

No matter which group they belong to, they all ______ sports. If you look around the campus, you will find that ______ have disappeared, and that there are healthy, strong, clever, and lively students everywhere.

3 . At age 83, Barbara Humbert dreams of taking part in next year’s “Marathon for All” race at the Paris Olympic Games. It is the first ______ of its kind, allowing amateur(业余)athletes to run the same race path as the Olympic marathon athletes. Humbert has a history of success suggesting she could ______ some runners half her age.

Unlike your ______ great-grandmother, the German-born Frenchwoman runs 50 kilometers a week. She has ______ in many marathons and has the medals to show for it. “It's ______ to have the Olympics in my homeland,” said Humbert, “It would be a ______ for my 60th marathon.”

However, Humbert is ______ whether she will receive the paper for admission to the race, as the number for the Marathon for All will be ______ to 20,024. Humbert's husband Jacques is a big supporter, helping where he can. He is waiting to hear from the sports ministry about the ______ to reserve a piece of admission paper for his wife.

Many ______ hang in the entrance of Barbara and Jacques’s home. They ______ Barbara of all the races she has taken part in, from Athens to Boston and many other cities. She figures out that she has ______

about 8,000 kilometers in those races.

Humbert wants others to ______ in her footsteps. She said of running, “It gives you balance. You run, you empty your head, you feel ______ relaxed afterwards.” Barbara is planning for more races ______ just staying on what has been achieved.

4 . Ida Keeling was 67, weak and sick, when her daughter Cheryl suggested a run to her. Cheryl thought that maybe what would pull her mother out from dark cloud was something that would get her _______ again.

Keeling lived a hard life when young, growing up _______ in Harlem, and doing hard work in factories during the Great Depression. She had _______ her husband early, and two of her four children died in drug-related incidents in 1978 and 1981.

Keeling had sunk into a deep _______, her health had begun to _______, and her daughters began to _______ that they soon might be losing their mother as well.

It had been decades since Keeling had done any _______, and she would later recall that first “mini-run” feeling as if it would never end. But when it did, “I just threw off all my bad _______.”

She hasn’t stopped running since, and it’s no longer as _______ as it was during that first meet. “I was just exercising then,” she says ________ regarding that first run, “and now I’m all over the world.”

When she’s not running, she must be ________. She’s in the gym three to four days a week on a ________ basis. Part of her healthy diet is occasional consumption of alcohol mixed with her coffee or water to ________ blood circulation.

She’s written a book about her ________, titled Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race Against Time. Her ________ is also suitable for everyone: “Every day is another day forward.”

5 . 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!

6 . There is no age limit to work or do something you love. 102-year-old Jean Bailey, a resident of Elk Ridge Village Senior Living in Omaha, is constantly ________ this by teaching a fitness class four times a week for almost three years now.

Bailey mentioned that some of her ________ clients have arthritis(关节炎) that restricts their mobility, but they can ________ perform stretching exercises by following her instructions and get benefit from them. Bailey, who also uses a ________ frequently due to her leg pain, is a strict coach despite this. She explained she was ________ and called “mean” for being strict in her classes. “The girls seem to ________ what I’m going to do for them,” she added. “They know it’s beneficial.”

In 2020, 99-year-old Bailey started ________ classes. Despite being a senior, she wasn’t ________ by the younger ages of her peers(同行). Being someone who was keen on staying active and good at motivating people, she encouraged her students to bring chairs into the hallway and performed ________ exercises. Everyone enjoyed it greatly and the classes never stopped.

Bailey ________ 30-minute exercise classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, which begin at 9:45 am. Apart from helping them stay ________, the classes also have allowed the women attending to form beautiful ________. Bailey said, “One of us would do something for anybody. We really keep track of each other.”

One of these women is Phyllis Black, 87, who lives down the hall from Bailey. Black was ________ by Bailey with homemade cookies when she moved into Elk Ridge about three years ago. Bailey often treats the ________ with baked goods after the exercise sessions, especially on birthdays, as she believes all birthdays are significant at this age. Black said of Bailey, “She’s a very ________ neighbor, and she’s also a good friend.”

7 . We all know that physical exercise has treatment power, but who would have ever imagined that playing ping pong could help _________ the brain?

For decades, the recording artist and activist Nenad Bach _________ the world performing with famous musicians like Bono and Luciano Pavarotti. However, everything came to a _________ stop in 2010 when Nenad was _________ to have Parkinson’s disease(帕金森病). Everything that Nenad thought was ordinary in life was _________. “Music is a passion of mine,” he said. “When I was told I had Parkinson’s, I didn’t know what it was. Five years later, I couldn’t play a single chord(和弦) on the _________.”

One day, a friend of Nenad’s asked him to play _________ with him, and Nenad said yes. The effects were _________ and positive: he woke up the next day filled with a “_________ to live”, and his physical and cognitive(认知的) issues had __________. Encouraged, he kept playing. For months, he told everyone around him about how ping pong was __________ his Parkinson’s, but his praise fell on deaf ears. __________, he took matters into his own hands and started Ping Pong Parkinson’s sessions. Once the sessions __________ momentum(势头), he created a nonprofit organization called Ping Pong Parkinson (PPP). PPP hopes to encourage people living with Parkinson’s to play ping ping for its multiple __________.

Nenad has made spreading the word about the power of ping pong as his new life goal! He hopes others will __________ the sport and see the same sort of cognitive and physical improvements he’s enjoyed.

8 . 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 __________.

9 . The INF Clairefontaine is one of the world’s top football academies and also houses the French national football team.

The national team is in its third day of _________ since it gathered at the place to _________ a match against Denmark. Villagers nearby have been invited to watch their _________ on one side of the pitch (球场)．A media group watches from the _________ side. Most players are just _________ from their club teams, but they fall quickly and _________ into a communicative dance with the ball. Didier Deschamps, their coach, looks on from the pitch, _________ the discipline and efficiency he prizes.

On a nearby pitch, the academy youngsters (青训营)_________ their training session, too. The boys erupt with screams whenever they _________ a goal.

After dusk settles in and training __________, Kylian Mbappé, the French football superstar, stays late with a goalkeeper and a few defenders, __________ extra shots. When he arrived on these same grounds roughly a decade earlier, he was full of __________ like the current group of youngsters. But__________ them, he doesn’t__________ when his shots find their way past the keeper. He simply __________ the practice, over and over. His only __________ comes when a ball __________ its mark. Then Mbappé erupts in shouts of regret.

“The youngest players look at the French team, and they tend to __________ what they see, ”Deschamps says. “So each player has a__________ in everything he does, on the pitch or off . . . to have a __________ influence and to give a good image to the young players.

10 . Mae ran into Jon before he could run away. Jon fell and Mae piled on top of him. It was a perfect tackle (擒抱摔倒) for a rugby (英式橄榄球) game. I ________.

While they were in the ________ for the rugby ball, another player attacked Mae and she fell. The cheer was stuck in my throat. After a few moments, Mae got up and ________ the game and the game went well. I felt a sense of ________.

When Mae, my 13-year-old daughter, first asked if she could play rugby, I was terrified. ________, I did not like the sport because the game was violent (激烈的) and it had the most ________ of all school sports.

However, Mae wanted to play rugby so much that she kept asking for my permission whenever I said no. Mae was ________ and full of confidence. She was strong and ________ for her age at 170 cm. If she were to ________ till she turned fifteen, the boys would ________ over her and be stronger than her. She argued that it might be the only ________ for her to do well in this sport.

Touched by her determination, I ________ finally. I watched all her matches. I hoped that my ________ at her games would encourage her. I was ________ of her for not giving up the sport.

She loved the sport ________ there were so many challenges.