1 . During the lockdown, my husband, Bob, and I were offered a pingpong table. I am a non-athlete but Bob does well in pingpong.

“What are we going to do with that pingpong table?” Bob asked me.

“The two of us will_______,” I replied.

Bob looked ______ .

I lost every game and I told myself that it didn’t _______that I always lost. I was playing for   ______   and to provide a positive experience in a difficult time. But there were days when I   ______   losing. Once I threw my paddle (球拍) across the yard angrily. Then Bob ______ I play with a handicap (让分) of 12 points. That   ______a lot--I sometimes won! I’d never been interested in any kind of sport. But pingpong became the ______of my day.

We generally played five games. I   ______   won two of them. Knowing that I could win sometimes made the ______   more painful, but I watched a video of high-level players and learned from them. I began to get _____   and won more games. My handicap   ______ to 8.

My husband and I ______the worst of the lockdowns through pingpong. It   ______ me that even a self- described bookworm can learn a new sport. The ______ was my husband’s suggestion that I play with a handicap so I’d have an equal ______ to win. He doesn’t like to lose either, but it’s more fun for him if I actually want to participate and   ______ it. It takes two willing partners to play table tennis, ______and two people with an equal chance in each other’s ______to make a marriage. Simply put, when it comes to table tennis — or any other ______   — there is no ping without a pong.

4 . No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own efforts.

I learned this lesson from a(n) ________ many years ago when I took the head ________ job at a school in Georgia.

It was a tradition for the school’s old team to ________ the new team at the end of spring practice. The old team had no ________ and they even didn’t prepare for the game. Being the coach of the new team, I was excited because I knew we were going to win, but disappointedly, we were defeated. I couldn’t ________ I had got into such a situation. Thinking hard about it, I came to ________ that my team might not be the number one team, but they were ________ me. I had to change my attitude about their ability and potential.

I started doing anything I could to help them build a little ________. Most importantly, I began to treat them like ________. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their vacations, we met every day and practiced.

Six months after suffering our defeat, we won our first game and our second, and continued to ________. Finally, we faced the number one team in the state. I felt it would be a ________ for us even if we lost the game. But my boys beat them, giving me one of the greatest ________ of my life!

From the experience I learned a lot about how the attitude of the leader can ________ the team. Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I pushed and ________ them. I helped them to see themselves ________, and they built themselves into winners.

Winners are made, not born.

6 . I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball. I watched _________ as she ran circles around the other kids and _________ jump shots over their heads. The boys always tried to _________ her, but never could.

I began to notice her at other times, on that same blacktop (柏油路), playing alone—sometimes until dark. One day, I _________ her why she practiced so much. Without a moment of _________, she said: “The only way I can go to college is that I get a _________. I like basketball. If I’m _________ enough, I can get one.”

She was _________. I watched her through those junior high years and into high school. But one time in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, her _________ cradled (抱着) in her arms. __________, I asked what was wrong. “I am just too short,” came a soft __________. The coach told her that, at about 165 cm, she would probably never get to play for a top-ranked team—much less __________ a scholarship.

She was __________. I asked her to talk to her dad about it. Her father told her that those coaches were wrong—they just did not __________ the power of a dream. Nothing could stop her, except one thing: her own __________. He told her, “If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t __________.”

The next year, when she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was __________ by a college recruiter (招生人员). She indeed obtained a scholarship to a women’s basketball team. She finally got what she had __________ and worked toward for all those years. And that little girl ended up having more __________ time than any other woman in the __________ of the university.

7 . Who to Believe?

“My doctors told me I would never walk again because of the illness. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”

Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 into a very large and poor African-American family in Tennessee. When she was four years old, a deadly _________ made her left leg useless. She had to wear an iron leg brace (固定器). Her doctors told her she would never _________ like a normal person without the brace. _________ she was fortunate in having a mother who encouraged her to have faith and _________ .

At nine years of age, the little girl _________ the leg brace and took the step that her doctors had said was _________ . Then she got the incredible idea that she would like to be the world’s greatest woman _________ . Now, what could she mean- be a professional sportswoman with a useless leg?

At the age of thirteen, she began to enter races, but she came in last in every race. Everyone begged her to   _________ it. One day, however, she came in next to last. Then there came a day when she won a race. From then on, she   _________ every race that she entered.

In 1957, Wilma went to Tennessee State University, where she met a __________ named Ed Temple. He trained her so well that in 1960 she went to the Olympic Games in Rome. There she __________ a German girl named Jutta Heine, the greatest woman runner of the day. Wilma had just won two Olympic gold medals both in the 100-metre sprint (短跑) and the 200-metre sprint. Then came the 400-metre relay. It would be Wilma __________ Jutta. When the third runner handed the baton (接力棒) to Wilma, she was so excited that she __________ it, and Wilma saw Jutta taking off down the track. It was impossible that anybody could catch this girl. But Wilma did just that! Wilma Rudolph had __________ her third Olympic gold medal in the 17th Olympic Games.

That day Wilma made history as she became the first woman to win three gold medals in the same Olympic Games. Later she said. “The success can’t be reached without the __________ . I have spent a lifetime trying to share my story so that other young women have a chance to reach their __________ ”

Wilma had never __________ that she would not walk again and she kept struggling and finally earned the title of the world’s __________ woman. Her story told us it is our __________ that show what we truly are far more than our __________ .

8 . It was a classic night. The noisy Mexico City ________ calmed down. The main stadium of Olympic track and field competition was enveloped(笼罩) in the ________ . After he finished taking photos of the marathon winners ________ the victory, Greenspan, a world-famous news producer, found the stadium ________. He was about to leave ________ he suddenly saw a man with his right leg spotted with the blood ran into the stadium. This man ran lamely(跛脚地) out of breath, but he didn’t stop. After he ran along the track for a ________ and got to the finish line, he ________ the ground.

Greenspan guessed this was a marathon athlete. Out of ________, he went over and ask why the athlete wanted to run to the ________ with such a difficulty.

The young man, called Kowari from Tanzania, replied in a ________ voice, “That my country sent me here from over 20,000 kilometers is not to let me get off the track in the competition, but to make me ________ the game. I’ve fallen behind all other runners, I have a sacred(神圣的) goal like them. ________ the audience won’t ________ me any more, but my motherland is watching me from behind….” Tears welled up in Greenspan’s eyes. Soon, he spread the most ________ scene in the history of the Olympic Games to every corner of the world.

Life should have a dream of reaching the peak. It is not whether we can reach the top but whether we’ve made the greatest ________ that counts. To reach the goal in the mind is also a success.

10 . When I first walked into a Tai Chi class, I had no idea this eastern movement practice would become so central in my life. It ________ I was not just there for exercise! For many years now it has been my continuing ________ to share Tai Chi with students of all ages and walks of life.

Many people begin classes wanting to grow stronger, more ________, and flexible. Others are looking for effective ways to ________ with stress, the constant demand and trouble of modern life. ________ some had seen a TV ad they couldn’t remember, describing a group calmly doing Tai Chi in the park, and it ________ their curiosity about a different route to health

Concentrating on ________ posture and breathing control, Tai Chi’s movements are graceful and well balanced, ________ the complete harmony of body and mind. It is different from western sports such as rugby where the harder and quicker the ________. Tai Chi is a sport that strengthens the body as well as the ________ from the within. All of these are powerful benefits of Tai Chi. ________, I have found that consistent practice of these forms develops my everyday experience, and ________ the way for growth.

I’ve been a ________ in various schools over the years, and delight in watching ________ we each find our own keys to learning. It’s a privilege to accompany and ________ that process in my students. I am ________ by the marvelous teachers with whom I’ve had the good fortune to work. All of my ________ take place in beautiful old buildings. The first class is free to newcomers ________ they may try it out with no commitment. I invite you to ________ with questions, or to register for classes. Whether you are young or aged, male or female, you can choose Tai Chi as your ________ physical exercise.