1 . 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.

2 . Every time I passed boys who were playing basketball, I stopped to silently watch them. I really envied them. But as a girl, I once thought that I could _______ play basketball.

I like playing basketball though I’m not good at it. I’ve had a basketball _______ I was a child. At first, I could play freely because no one _______ when I was just a kid. But as I grew up it seemed harder for me to enjoy basketball. At school, boys always played basketball during PE classes. The girls were _______ allowed to play volleyball or badminton. My parents did not _______ me play basketball at home.

“Basketball is not fit for girls,” they said. _______ I went to play basketball with my friends, boys _______ at me on the court as if I were an alien. I was feeling _______ and had lost hope of playing basketball. _______, something changed the first day of high school. I made some friends who also enjoyed playing basketball. They ________ me to get back on the court.

One of them told me with a smile, “Go your own ________, let others talk.” This girl would always play basketball with me. Even the boy who sat next to me in class talked about ________ with me almost every day.

I was inspired by them. Confidence and passion ________ to my heart. I will play as well as I can, ________ for me, even the sky is boundless (无限的).

Basketball has become an important part of my ________. I am interested in it. I watch matches and enjoy playing almost every day. Through basketball, I not only feel happy and confident, but also ________ a lot.

I’ve heard the NBA star Tracy McGrady say, “Nothing is impossible.” I have ________ to realize that life is just like playing basketball. You should have an ________. After that, just be confident and ________ going. Never give up and you’ll make it sooner or later.

I love the motto of the NBA. It can ________ my strong feelings for basketball, “I love this game!”

3 . 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.

One summer weekend, my wife, my son and I entered a running race on mountain trails. When the race started, our son took off ______, but my wife and I stayed back, enjoying the scenery. After some time, while running down a narrow, ______ trail, I walked on a big stone and had a ______. I realized I'd got my toe ______, but I didn't check my damage. Instead, we kept running.______, after going half the course, I realized my watch on my wrist was______. I encouraged my wife to go on ahead, and returned to see if I could find it. Later, I ______ my broken watch and quickly put it into my pocket. Then I ______ down the trail. In the end, I saw my son, who had finished 30 minutes earlier, had run back up the trail to ______ me. He ran with me to the end.

______ it turned out, both my wife and son had won first place in their age groups, but I had no chance of placing. After the race, I took off my shoe and found that my sock was in blood. Luckily, the race ______ had a special award for the most injured runner.

Although everyone wants to live a life of comfort, the ______ is that we often face pain and ______. However, the key to happiness is ______ pain into something positive. In other words, ______ can make us stronger if we face them bravely.

5 . Sixteen years ago,when I was playing basketball in one of America's best basketball leagues, I remember a sports psychologist(心理学家) we had for the season. As young professional athletes with high egos(自我价值感), the team were not quite sure that the techniques(技巧) of psychology would _______ performance, especially when it didn't involve using the physical strength and patience needed to_______ the weeks of training and games. I, _______ was interested.

we were trained in visualization (可视化；想象) technique used before games, It involved moving ourselves info a meditative(冥想的) state and taking ourselves on a journey into the _______ to recreate the experience of a game. From _______ home, getting to the stadium, being in the change room, walking out onto the _______ and then finally imagining how we would play and see ourselves _______ The most important part of the _______ was to bring to life the lifelike details of each stage, while also focusing on the _______ that came with it. We were trained to ________ fear and doubt and learned to go beyond them, so that by the time we got onto the court, we were proud ________ and ready to play.

What I learnt most from this technique was that winning games was important but how we ________ to play was even more important. And ________ visualization was a powerful way to see through to the ________ there were absolutely no ________ in the hard work of getting there.

7 . Don’t Take the Fun Out of Youth Sports

When I joined a private football league a few years ago, the sport meant everything to me.

My coach said that I had lots of potential, and I became captain of my _________. That was before all the fun was taken out of _________. At first, everyone on the team got _________ playing time. Then the team moved up to the top division after winning all its games, and the _________ started. Some parents, who had paid the coach extra so their daughters could have _________ one-on-one training, got angry when she didn’t give them more playing time in our _________. The coach was _________ . The new coach, however, took all the fun out of the game: all we did during practice was _________. I always wished to God that it would rain so we would not have the _________. Of course, all teams run drills(操练); they are __________. But we ran so much that, afterwards, we had trouble __________. Younger people shouldn’t be doing exercises __________ for 18-year-olds. I was very thin __________ I started football, but as a member of this team I wouldn’t eat much, because I was afraid of being too __________ to run. I feared making mistakes, and the added pressure caused me to make more than my usual __________. Is all this pressure necessary?

I __________ up leaving the football team. Four other girls did the same, and two of them stopped playing football completely. That’s __________, because they had so much potential. They were just burned-out with all the pressure they felt from the coach or their parents. I continued playing football at school and __________ my love for it. I joined a private team coached by my school coach. When I started playing for him, he told me I needed to __________ because I looked nervous. After I __________ down, I played better. When you enjoy something, it’s a lot easier to do it well.

8 . Only someone who has competed in a sports event knows what it's like. It's in those kinds of________that you find you feel courage and,________, you feel fear. What I remember mast was my last Horse-riding Championship in Brazil three years ago.

The person________for setting the hurdles sequence is the best in my country and well-known internationally, which meant I would face many possible________.

What made the competition________was that it happened in the coldest Brazilian winter, when a horse becomes more________and excited than in hot weather. What I had to face was________different from the one I was used to.

________stressed and also proud. I woke up that morning. As the time of my ride was arriving, I had________feelings: "fear, courage"; "stress, pride"; "worry,________"; "upset, honour. I________myself and my horse for our ride. Suddenly, a(n)________happened almost in front of me. A girl from another state fell and________herself and the horse in the fall. I was scared at that________and thought hopelessly that my goal was never________.

My coach was helping the injured girl.________enough, a friend of mine, who is also professional, realized that I was worried, and came to________with me like my coach about how I could________this kind of accident.

I don't really remember what exactly happened________the competition. I just remember how I controlled the situation and how I loved it. The moment my ride was completed, all my friends were________me on my perfect performance.

9 . When I was 13 my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant _______ Miller King, who was the best player at our school.

Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for _______.

Just before September, Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him after he came back from hospital. He looked very _______, but he didn’t cry.

That season, I _______ all of Miller’s records while he _______ the home games from the bench. We went 10-1 and I was named most valuable player, but I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame for Miller’s _______.

One afternoon, I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller _______ going over a fence — which wasn’t _______ to climb if you had both arms. I’m sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept _______ from. But even that challenge he accepted. I assisted him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally ________ on the other side, he said to me, “You know, I didn’t tell you this during the season, but you did fine. Thank you for filling in for ________.”

His words freed me from my bad ________. I thought to myself, how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated, he was ________ ahead of me. I was right to have ________ him. From that day on, I grew ________ and a little more real.

10 . Being a parent is already a life-changing experience. However, this 40-year-old dad_______an astonishing transformation after a hike with his kids.

Before Jeremiah Peterson looked like a supermodel, he weighed 290 pounds. He was only_______to lose weight after he went on a_______with his family in 2017 and became self-conscious about how quickly he was_______from the activity.

“Instead of remembering all the good_______we had made on this trip, all I can remember is this one thing that kept playing in my head over and over again: I found myself running out of breath and having to take_______way before my 9-, 7- and 6-year-old kids,” Peterson wrote on Instagram.

The dad from Missoula, Montana then was_______to get into shape.

He started by giving up drinking and_______a ketogenic diet(生酮食法). Every day for five months straight, he would hike for two hours and spend one_______hour at the gym.

After 150 days of a strict diet and lots of________, Peterson lost 92 pounds. Not only that, he can now run________up the hiking trail that once made him extremely exhausted.

Peterson now uses his story and fitness expertise to coach and________almost 100,000 social media followers---but he says that his kids are the real________for his success.

“Finding your reason that is________if you want to achieve success in life,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “If you don’t have a strong reason behind your________you are less likely to get the results.”