1 . 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.

2 . In a small fishing village in Southern Thailand, some boys of Panyee Football Club play football amazingly. They_________, shout, jump and kick like most other football players, but these boys are especially good at_________of the ball because their football field is a raft 筏)in the middle of the sea. Since 2004, the club has_________the Thai Youth Football Championships seven times.

The_________of Panyee FC begins back in 1986. Some of the young boys were watching the World Cup Football Championships on television._________, one of the boys said. “We watch football on TV, but we’ve never played it.” The boys made a_________.

“Our football team starts today. We want to become world_________!” they shouted. But the villagers_________them. “Are you crazy? You don’t have a field! How can you_________?

The boys were__________to make their dream come true. They used__________fishing boats and pieces of wood to make a__________football field. They practised for hours every day, even__________the field was wet. That first year, they__________it to the semi-finals of the__________football competition. They have now played for over twenty-five years and they are one of the best youth football teams in the country.

4 . It was a big day for Molly. She sat in the backseat of the car, looking very _________. Her mom and Uncle Connor were talking about the days when they competed in school _________, to make Molly relaxed.

“Your mom was a great _________, Molly,” said Uncle Connor. “As soon as your mom hit the water, she was a fish. You could tell she was _________ to swim.”

Molly smiled at the idea of her mom swimming as _________ as a fish. For a moment, she even _________ that they were on the way to her first swim race of the season.

_________ Molly knew it, they were pulling into the parking lot at the school. Her mom gave her a quick kiss on the head for _________, and Uncle Connor smiled at her. “We’ll see you after the _________, Miss Molly,” he said. “Just do your best.”

Molly took a deep breath as she ____________ over to the pool. As she ____________ her turn to swim, she gave herself a pep talk as an ____________. You can do it. You’ve done it before. Just stay calm.

____________, Molly heard the sound of the whistle(哨子). She pushed off the starting block and ____________ into the cool water. Then, she was moving through the ____________ with strong, sure strokes(划水动作). Molly could ____________ the voices of her mom and uncle in the crowd when she turned her head to breathe. She ____________ the speed of her strokes and soon felt her hand touch the blue wall.

As Molly pulled herself from the water, she ____________ the faces of her mom and Uncle Connor in the crowd. Then she found them. They were both holding up a single finger in the air with ____________ smiles. Number one! Molly couldn’t help smiling back and raising one arm in the air. Her ____________ during the summer had paid off!

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.

8 . Standing in front of the bike shop, Dave stared at the shiny red bicycle in the window. He could _______ himself riding the bike in Saturday’s race and winning the first-place medal and prize money. “With that bike, I could even beat Adam,” Dave thought.

He rode on and stopped at Peck’s clothing store. The coat he planned to buy his mother for her birthday was still on sale. Dave knew she would _______ buy it for herself. She worked hard just to make _______ meet. But the prize money would be enough for him to buy that coat and surprise her.

Dave looked at his old bike. Two years ago, he found some old bicycles at the _______ and used the parts to make one bike. He called it his recycled bike. “I’ll never _______ the race on this old bike,” Dave sighed.

As Dave passed the junkyard, he noticed a newer-looking bike tire. He started _______ the huge junk pile. Finally, he found what he was looking for. “These two tires and the handgrips (手把) are just _______ for my bike.”

Arriving home, Dave put the used tires and the handgrips on his _______ bike, and oiled the chained. He stood back and admired the _______ he had made. “I might win that race after all,” he said to himself.

The next morning, when Dave and his mom got to the park, about thirty kids had already __________. Dave headed for the start line __________ Mom found a seat at the finish line.

Bang! The riders rushed off. Dave __________ Adam, who was in the lead. He __________ to pass one rider after another and was approaching Adam. Leaning forward, Dave pedaled harder and faster. __________ he sped by Adam and crossed the finish line.

As the announcer awarded Dave the medal and the check for fifty dollars, he asked, “What are you going to do with the prize money, Dave?”

“It’s a __________ ,” Dave said and waved to his mom.

9 . British Cycling had recently hired Dave Brailsford as its new director. At the time, professional cyclists in Great Britain had ________ nearly one hundred years of mediocrity(平庸). In fact, their________   had been so poor that one of the top bike companies in Europe ________ to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw the British people using their bikes.

What made Brailsford different from previous coaches was his________ of searching for a tiny improvement in everything they do. The whole principle came from the idea that if you________   everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, improve it by 1 percent and you will get a________ increase when you put them all together.

Brailsford and his coaches began by making small________. They redesigned the bike seats to make them more________. They asked riders to wear electrically heated over-shorts to ________ ideal muscle temperature while riding and used biofeedback sensors to ________how each athlete responded to a particular workout.

But they didn’t stop there.They________ to find 1 percent improvements in overlooked areas. They hired a(n)________ to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the ________ of catching a cold. They even painted the ________ of the team truck white, which helped them ________little bits of dust that would normally slip by ________ but could affect the performance of the________tuned bikes.

As these and hundreds of other small improvements were ________, the results came faster than anyone could have ________. Just five years after Brailsford took over, they________ the road and track cycling events in all the important Games.