1 . Donna Urquhart is an experienced runner. She ran 1,402 kilometers over the course of 28 days in Antarctica (南极洲), _______ the record for the longest-ever run in a polar region.

Urquhart spent 10 months training for the _______, turning to some unusual training methods. A company allowed her to run in a _______ storage unit where she ran in temperatures below zero. Besides, she ran along the beaches with uneven (凹凸不平的) surfaces that are like the _______ grounds in Antarctica. All those proved useful _______.

The difficulties that Urquhart faced in Antarctica were _______: taking in about 5,000 calories each day, _______ in a tent. Combined with the sound of _______ winds and the continent’s 24 hours of sunlight in the summer months, these were _______ favorable to a good night’s sleep. Urquhart would usually wear four layers of coats and keep ________ her own body temperature while running.

Urquhart launched the Run Antarctica aiming to encourage more women to ________ sport. Though still unsure about what her next running challenge will have, she has set a ________ of raising $1.5 million for charity.

“Confidence is a real issue for females,” says Urquhart. “And a sporting environment provides them with a great opportunity to ________ themselves.” This served as a huge ________ for her to take on a challenge that no other woman had attempted before. “It was actually showing that we can push our ________, and explore what seems impossible,” says Urquhart.

2 . In 2022, a father and his son set out to begin the first of three legs of the Ironman (铁人三项) competition. Jeff, 59, and son, Johnny, 28, weren’t the typical ________. Johnny is disabled and Jeff would ________ his arms and legs. To ________ the competition, athletes must complete a(n) ________ 140 miles of swimming, bicycling and running within 17 hours.

“I wanted to ________ his dreams,” Jeff said. “I started doing things I never would have dreamt possible.” Finishing the Ironman competition would be another dream come true.

The race began with a 2.4-mile swim in the Choptank River. The ________ completed the swim in 90 minutes, and completed the difficult bike part in eight hours, then set their sights on the ________ leg of the race — a 26.2-mile marathon with Jeff ________ Johnny in the racing chair. They’d been competing for 5 hours, leaving another 3 hours to make their time. But at mile 19, Jeff began to panic, convinced they were going too slow. Somehow he ________ the energy to pick up the pace.

With 15 minutes left and 200 feet to the finish line, Jeff stopped to help Johnny out of his racing chair. In the first decade of his life, Johnny could only walk 23 steps. ________, after years of painstaking work, he ________ his step number and was determined to finish his races on his own. Johnny saw the clock ticking down and ________ they wouldn’t complete it. “Not because I wouldn’t get my moment,” he says, “but because Dad had worked so hard.”

After 16 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds — with just four minutes and 25 seconds to ________— father and son crossed the finish line together.

As the crowd cheered on an excited Johnny, a(n) ________ Jeff kept a low profile (保持低调).

“He didn’t want his finish line moment,” says Johnny. “He wanted it to be ________.”

3 . The Martin County High School boys’ basketball team was in the final quarter of a nail-biter of a game at a regional tournament in Pikeville, Ky., when live music ______ started playing for them.

They knew it wasn’t their school’s ______ 23-member band —which was unable to ______ the game because of a bus driver shortage. The music was coming from the nearly 100-member band of a rival (对手的) school, Pike County Central High School. The score was ______ in the tough game when the music filled the air.

Jason Johnson, Pike Central Band director, said some audience members and cheerleaders started encouraging his band to ______ the playing field and perform for Martin County Cardinals. “I was ______, well, what should I do?” Johnson recalled. The score was 64-64.

The band members, though, seemed ______ to replace Martin County’s band. “It was the students who really stepped up and ______, “said Johnson, who ultimately ______ his concerns and decided, “Let’s just do it.”

As they started their first song, the Cardinals’ ______ skyrocketed (飞涨，猛涨). “We just wanted to ______ them in a time when they needed encouragement most.” said one band member.

______ the Cardinals secured a ______ in overtime. Players said the ______ from the band helped them come out on top. Now, the team is ______ for the state tournament, marking the school’s first time competing at that level in 40 years.

4 . “Have you ever considered giving up during a race?” a runner asked me during the Geneva Marathon. We’d _________ and keeping going felt like walking through a marsh (沼泽). Even the appealing scenery along the way wasn’t enough to _________ our spirits.

“I can’t think of a single race when I haven’t!” I answered _________. The runner beside me looked a little relived. Encouraged, I went on to _________ a few of the weak moments I’d overcome to persuade her to _________. My biggest _________ came during the first half of the 56-mile Marathon in South Africa, I told her. Running it was a _________ dream, but when I found myself on a steep hill with painful blisters (水疱) between my toes after a(n) _________ decision to wear no socks.

“If I give up now, I’ll _________ myself six hours of pain,” I continued. In that moment, 1,000 km of __________ training and the thousands of pounds I’d spent on flights and accommodation didn’t __________ at all.

__________, someone at my running club had laughed at the idea of a slow runner like me entering the marathon like this, and recalling this inspired me to keep moving.

“I may not finish this race before the 12-hour __________, but I’m not going to give that man the chance to say, “I told you so”, I said. Soon afterwards, I buddied up with another __________, a six-hour chat __________ and we got each other to the finish with 17 minutes to spare.

5 . In seventh grade, my mum suggested I join the golf league. _______ the fact that I had been taking golf lessons since I could walk, I had never played a real match of golf. And she _______ me to join a league? I was sure she had lost her _______. But as always, my mum _______ in the end. I played on the middle-school golf team in seventh grade… and eighth. When the summer before high school came, I was _______ to play on the high-school team.

At a time when most teenagers try to spend the smallest time possible with their _______, I was growing closer than ever to mine. That summer I _______ almost every Sunday morning on the golf course with my dad, and too many afternoons there with my mum. This incredible _______ with my parents continued during my high-school years. Mum and I thought it was because of the hours we spent together on the _______ course. We talked about things in the middle of a round of golf that we ________ would at home, where she is Mum and I am an annoying teenager. On the golf course, we are just two people who ________ golf.

Golfing has ________ a part of me over the past years. In the summer my friends know the place to find me is on the golf course. Golf has ________ me and made me into the person I am today. And I have to admit that all of it is ________ my mum making me join that middle-school golf league. In fact, she was ________ — as usual.

6 . Without three key players, including the former captain, how did 55-year-old Jenny Lang Ping and her girls spent the 20 days before winning against Japan with 3-1? Getting the world title at the 2015 FIVB Women’s World Cup is _______. The three players, namely, former captain Hui Ruoqi, Yang Fangxu and Xu Yunli, all _______ a lot to Chinese national women’s volleyball team. Hui Ruoqi and Yang Fangxu helped the country win the silver _______ in last year’s World Championship, while Xu Yunli helped China win the third _______ at Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Facing this, Jenny Lang Ping, who is called “Iron Hammer”, never _______ in her weak team and prepared for the coming competitions at the 2015 FIVB Women’s World Cup by _______ the confidence of her girls. Head coach Lang Ping and her girls met their first _______ after failing to beat US women’s volleyball team on Aug 24, 2015, two days after the start of the 2015 FIVB Women’s World Cup. The girls couldn’t help crying in the face of the _______, but Lang Ping _______ them around and said: “Calm down, girls, it’s still too ________ to see who will win, since we can learn lessons from this failure”, after analyzing Chinese team’s problems during the game and thinking about the ________.

________ encouraging words and smiles, the head coach watched the video of that game until late night and just had a two-hour light sleep. But the 55-year-old did not fight ________. Her girls returned with ________ to fight until the end. And finally, they ________ it.

7 . 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.”

8 . 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 regularly 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 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.

9 . Adriaan Wildschutt is a South African middle-distance runner. Recently he _______ to break two previous records in a row in just three months, which were set in 1999 and 2016. While qualifying (取得资格) for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 was his main _______, breaking two records was a(n) _______ but great achievement.

With such a performance, Wildschutt has put himself in a strong _______ for future competitions during the World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger in Belgium. And he looks forward to _______ his country on a global stage.

“Well, it is _______ to know that I have written myself into the history books of South African athletics. It has always been a _______, and knowing that my hard work paid off in such a surprising way is joyful,” said Adriaan Wildschutt. “I guess I _______ from the elevation training over there a lot. It’s just having a great coach and a great team and having all the things that I need to _______ well and stay healthy and consistent,” Wildschutt said.

“The 3,000 m for me is really the most ________ — It’s short and fast and very exciting. It’s probably not the event I’m best at, but I ________ enjoy running in it. I would probably say my best events are 5,000 m-10,000 m,” said Wildschutt with ________.

The United States-based athlete said one should work hard to achieve the goals. “Work hard in all ________ of your life, whether that is personally, academically (学业地) or athletically. It’s important that you keep them ________. Discipline (自律) is also ________, which helps you manage yourself well. It is what made me who I am today.”

10 . The planet has a new world record for running the Zurich Marato Barcelona while pushing a wheelchair!

Eric Domingo Roldan of Barcelona, Spain, first tried to run a 26.2-mile race while _______ his mother Silvia back in 2020. When they _______ the mark by just 1 minute and 21 seconds, Eric vowed (发誓) to _______ in 2021 to win the title.

True to his _______ , Eric and Silvia have done just that! On November 7, 2021, Eric and Silvia crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 53 minutes and 28 seconds. The _______ record was 2: 58: 40, so they pulled off their _______ with time to spare!

Eric has a very special _______ for setting such a goal. Many people don’t know multiple sclerosis (多发性硬化) (MS). Eric runs to draw _______ to MS, which his mother has dealt with for more than 17 years. He also runs to raise money for MS. He _______ to collect more than €3, 000 before the marathon. All of the money was used to ________ MS research.

The son said achieving the world record means even more to them, because it encourages them to go on after they went through the hardest time of their life. ________ her MS, his mother is still recovering from a battle with COVID-19 back in August.

While she was ________ about the race, Silvia was all smiles in her wheelchair as Eric ran. She loved the feeling of the wind in her hair as her son pushed them both toward the finish line.

“It was a dream come true,” Eric added. “I was often looking at my watch to check if we were ________ , and the last 195m were the ________ seconds of my life. To cross that line meant that we finally did what we ________.”