2 . It was the final part of the Santa Barbara Cyclo-cross race in Spain. With only 300 meters to the finishing line, Ismael Esteban, in third place, was just ahead of his ________, Augstin Navarro. Esteban had been ________ as hard as he could for hours. With the finishing line in sight, all the riders began to ________. Then, suddenly Esteban’s bike got a puncture (扎胎). What should he do? ________ or continue? Esteban threw his bike over his shoulders and ________ towards the finishing line.

Just a few seconds later, Navarro caught up with him. ________, he could come third. But Navarro ________ down and let Esteban run ahead of him. The two riders reached the finishing line with Esteban ahead on foot, Navarro just ________ him. Navarro had let Esteban finish in third place, while he came fourth. The audience was ________ at his show of sportsmanship and   ________ for the riders. After the race, Navarro said, “I didn’t want to ________ that way.” Later, Esteban, who won the bronze (铜) medal, tried to give his ________ to Navarro. However, Navarro ________.

The two riders showed ________ sporting spirit. Esteban offered Navarro his medal and   Navarro refused to make use of Esteban’s ________. This was sportsmanship at its very best.

3 . 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 __________ .

4 . 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.

5 . At middle school I found it ________ to run around the playground and I was always one of the last students to cross the finish line. One day, my friend asked me if I would like to run a 10K event with him. My first reaction was, “No way! I hate ________ .”

Over the weekend I thought about his ________ . I thought, “Why do I hate it when I haven’t done it since Grade 7 in middle school?” In the end I decided I should have a(n) ________ .

I told my friend I would like to join the 10K event with him. He ________ me to turn to the Internet for a running programme to help me learn how to run. ________ I chose a 14-week running plan that would teach me how to run for 30 minutes non-stop. I had to run three times a week for different lengths of ________ . As the weeks went on I could run for longer periods. I enjoyed following the plan as I could see ________ in my running each week. I went from being ________ to run for more than 30 seconds to running for over 30 minutes! My younger self would not have ________ it.

On the day of the 10K running event I was both excited and ________ . It was the first time I had apply my new skills to practice. I lined up with other ________ . My friends and family came to support me. With their encouragement and my training, I ________ to finish the 10K in 72 minutes. It was ________ but I felt very proud of having tried It.

From this experience I learned it was a good idea to try something before saying “I hate it!” It turned out that I ________ running.

6 . No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own_________.

I learned this lesson from a(n)_________many years ago. I took the head coaching job at a school in Baxley, Georgia. It was a small school with a weak football program.   

It was a tradition for the school’s old team to play against the_________team at the end of spring practice. The old team had no coach, and they didn’t even practice to_________the game. Being the coach of the new team, I was excited because I knew we were going to win, but to my disappointment 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 in Georgia, but they were _________me. I had to change my_________about their ability and potential.   

I started doing anything I could to help them build a little_________. Most important, I began to treat them like winners. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their__________, we met every day and__________passing and kicking the football.

Six months after suffering our defeat on the spring practice field, we won our first game and our second, and continued to__________. Finally, we faced the number one team in the state. I felt that it would be a victory for us even if we lost the game. But that wasn’t what happened. My boys beat the best team in Georgia, giving me one of the greatest thrills of my life!   

From the experience I learned a lot about how the attitude of the leader can__________the members of a 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.

8 . During my first three years of college, I put on about 30 pounds of weight. Between classwork and a part-time job, I had zero time for _______. Besides, I ate a lot of fast food. Not surprisingly, I got a fat stomach.

After leaving college, I _______ to take exercise. Invited by a friend, I began working out with exercise machines three times a week. I was the kind of person who did not try something _______. I ate the same foods; I did the same things. Clearly, I _______ my routines (习惯). My friend, however, became _______. One day, he said, “We’re not getting enough exercise. We should play tennis instead.”

Me? Play tennis? No way. I was strongly against his _______. 1 was not good at sports. Besides, I was _______ the exercise machines. However, weeks later, I found myself standing on a tennis court (球场). As I held my racket (球拍), I felt _______. I gave my friend some looks that could kill. I ran after every ball he served to me, completely _______ about 90% of them, and hitting the rest into the other court. The first few months were quite __________. But one day, as the ball enough came flying toward me, my racket and the ball finally met in the place where it is most effective to hit a ball. I watched __________ as my return landed where I had aimed (瞄准) it, I had finally. __________ how to play tennis properly!

Tennis would finally become my __________. I played it for several years, only __________ because of a knee injury. I learned a lesson during my journey toward learning to play tennis: I can do whatever I set my mind to. I just __________ to put in the work, and the results will follow.

9 . Where do you go when you want to learn something? School? A friend? A tutor? These are all _________ places of learning. But it may well be that the learning you really want _________ somewhere else instead. I had the chance of seeing this first hand on a _________

My daughter plays on a recreational (业余) soccer team. They did well this season and so _________ a tournament, which normally was only for more skilled club teams. This led to some _________ experiences on Saturday as they played against teams _________ trained. Through the first two games, her team did not get one serious shot on goal. As a parent, I _________ seeing my daughter playing her best, _________ still defeated.

It seemed that something clicked with the girls between Saturday and Sunday. When they _________ for their Sunday game, they were __________ different. They had begun to apply all kinds of play and teamwork they had seen the day before to their __________. They played much better and __________ scored a goal.

It __________ me that playing against the other team was a great __________ moment for all the girls on the team. I think it is a general principle. __________ is the best teacher. The lessons they learned may not be different from what they would have gotten in school, but are certainly more personal and meaningful, because they had to work them out on their own.