1 . I had been swimming competitively for about five years and was ready to quit because I felt I was horrible at it. I kept _______ “Honorable Mentions”(安慰奖). Any _______knows that you don’t want to have a bookshelf full of “Honorable Mentions”, which you get just because you _______.

One summer day, the day _______ a big swim meet, I decided to tell my grandma that I was quitting the swim team, but she said, “Baby, _______ these words: ‘A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.’ You go to that swim meet tomorrow.”

The next day we arrived at the swim meet late, _______ my group of swimmers in the 15/ 16 age group. My _______ insisted that I be allowed to swim with the _______group. I knew that she was _______ me in the race so that our long drive would not be ________. As I got on the board, I quickly noticed that these girls were here to do one thing—to________ me! All of a sudden my grandma’s words ________ in my head, “Ouitters never win and winners never quit, quitters never win and winners never quit.”

SPLASH!

I was swimming ________ than I’d swum before. As I drew my right arm back, I noticed I was tied with one person. I assumed we were battling for the eighth place and I refused to finish dead last, so I added more kick on the ________ 200 yards. I hit the wall and ________ to the left and to the right for the swimmers who had beaten me, but no one was there. They must have gotten out of the ________ already. I raised my head to see my coach________ hysterically(歇斯底里). My eyes ________her pointing finger and I couldn’t believe what I saw. The other swimmers had just reached the halfway point of the ________! That day, at age 15, I broke the national 17/18-year-old 400-freestyle record. I had hung up my honorable mentions. That day, I ________ them with a huge gold medal.