1 . More than 30,000 runners, selected from 160,000 applicants both in and out of China, took part in this year’s Beijing Marathon on Nov 3.

Wearing colorful T-shirts and posing for photos, they __ at Tian’anmen Square before taking their __ at the starting line.

Nearly a decade ago, Chinese marathon ___struggled to make full preparations. Now, at big __ like the Beijing Marathon, runners must win a lottery (彩票) to enter.

This is __ of the world’s running boom. For millions of runners around the world, the real reason they __ to pound the roads until their legs hurt is more than weight loss or fitness.

Chasing records like the three-hour __, for example, is important, but it’s not the reason people run mile after mile, up hills, in wind and rain, when they could just stay __ in their beds. Record times are __ the carrots they hang in front of themselves.

Last year, a runner in the United Kingdom __ with the goal of running a marathon in less than three hours. In the end, he __ in three hours and two minutes. However, he was __ afterward. “If I’d done it, that would be it,” he told the Guardian. “Now I’ve still got my___, I can try again next year.”

Although running is __ and requires effort, it also brings joy. __ children. When they are excited, they can^’t stop running back and forth, __.

Indeed, when we race through the streets of a city, splashing (踏过）through puddles (水洼), getting __ in the rain and ruffled (吹乱的）in the wind, we can __ that childish joy again. As Holden Caulfield, the main __ of the novel The catcher in the Rye (《麦田里的守望者》), said, “I don’t __ know what I was running for — I guess I just felt like it.”

2 . 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 unsure whether she will receive the paper for _________ 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 for the sports ministry’s response to her _________ for joining in the race.

Many __________ hanging in the entrance of Barbara and Jacques’s home __________ 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.

To __________ others to follow 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 . When I tried out for the football team during the summer before 9th grade, I never imagined how important this sport would become in my life. Football is a _____ sport, at times almost painful, and practices really _____ a team’s physical and mental limits. Without trust in my own ability and a strong sense of commitment, I would never have managed to continue after years of hard work as a player, and with countless _____.

In the first year, I played on the defensive line. This was an amazing _____ that gave me a great sense of achievement. But in the last game of the season, I was seriously injured. I was prohibited from any physical activities for six months. After going _____ a series of physical treatments, I returned to the field as a team captain. I practiced harder than ever to make up for my _____ time.

In September, during my junior year, my name was mentioned in the local newspaper as the key defensive lineman on the team. After playing a fantastic season, I was given the _____ of the Most Valuable Player.

_____, my skills in football do not magically extend to other sports. During the winter break, I went on a snowboarding trip and seriously injured my right shoulder. I had to have four _____. Since I could not use my right arm for two months, I had to learn how to write and eat using my left hand.

______ life must go on. I knew that my own present efforts would decide my future, so I ______ the strict training program to build up strength and improve flexibility in my ______. After an eight-month recovery, I was back to the field playing football, the sport I ______.

In this sense, the world of football has taught me an important life lesson: ______ and commitment make what seems impossible ______. This lesson from football is the one that can be applied to every part of life.

6 . 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.

7 . Of all the stories of Olympic medalists, the most touching one is that of weight-lifting champion Oscar Figueroa.

During his athletic _________, the 37-year-old man had the chance to _________ in the Olympic games four different times. But he met with plenty of heartbreak and _________ before he finally succeeded.

In the 2004 Olympic games, Figueroa made his first _________. Because he wasn’t satisfied with his result, he looked _________ to competing in the Beijing 2008 Olympic games to prove himself. _________, just two weeks before the event, his hand was _________, which set him back in his weightlifting and _________ him the chance. By the London Olympic games in 2012, Figueroa took home the silver medal.

In spite of all that he’d already _________, he still aimed higher. In 2016, he headed to Rio to __________ the highest prize and he did. After his final lift, he __________ his shoes and put them on the stage, indicating that he would __________ from the Olympics. Amazingly enough, he took home the gold that year!

No matter how hard he felt, he never gave up, serving as a __________ example of hope, perseverance, and determination. Oscar Figueroa is the __________ Colombian man to have even taken home the gold in his field. He said he was __________ for the whole country in the competition in an interview.

8 . After having a child, I found my regular exercise interrupted. I was not only busy, but I also lacked the motivation. Solo gym sessions or some quick _______ following the DVD while the baby sleeps didn’t _______ me at all. So I decided to sign up for a hiking _______ in Peru, hoping that it would get me _______ again.

Look over my travel arrangements before I left. I scanned phrases such as “3-hour hike _______ primitive forests” and “sliding with a rope down waterfalls”, and I started to feel a little _______.

However, as we made our way through the forests and were _______ with amazing views of awesome waterfalls, this team of strangers _______ me to go on. Being physically active with a group motivated me to reach the _______ or the valley below—rather than simply lying down on the forest floor and giving up, ________ I might have done if I were alone.

Experts confirm my experience: Group exercise can really start a new attitude toward fitness. “People get a better ________ in a group than they do on their own,” said Allison Kimmel, a group ________ instructor. That’s because other people ________ both support and competition. “Humans are ________ animals and the shared experience of facing a challenge together is compelling (不可抗拒的),” said David Ezell, the CEO of fitness provider Darien Wellness.

With the support of a group, I’m slowly getting back into a ________ lifestyle.

9 . Exercise and I had never had a good relationship due to my fear of sports. From a young age, my dad _______ me into a dozen sports. I didn’t like any of them, _______.

When I entered the University of Regina, my dad _______ telling me “You have to find a way to stay _______.” or “You don’t want to get the Freshman 15, do you?” So I _______ to give swimming a shot, but I _______ managed to go to the pool twice during the fall semester (学期). Worse still, I was _______ to convince myself that’s OK.

The spring semester came. A friend of mine _______ me if I wanted to try Zumba (尊巴) with her. All I knew about Zumba was that it was basically a kind of exercise: dancing to Latin pop songs. It didn’t sound too bad, but I couldn’t be _______.

I went, and that was it. Zumba became my ________ of tea. The instructor would always say, “Don’t worry about the steps. Have fun. Do your own thing.” That removed my ________ of sports. I didn’t have to be ________. I didn’t even have to be good. I just needed to ________ the music and move. Zumba did ________ me from the Freshman 15, and it also did so much more. It let me make ________ with my unpleasant past about physical exercise, and enjoy staying healthy.