6 . In a recent game of pickleball, my teammate and I were falling far behind other teams. It was her turn to serve. We were both standing behind the baseline, paddles(球拍) up in ready position, when she nodded at me and said, “In it to win it.”

“Really?” I looked at her, surprised by her use of a catchy expression that was new to me. My inner self was never ready to accept even the tiniest suggestion that we should be trying to win the game.

In my life off the pickleball court, I enjoy yoga, folk dancing—anything but games with winners and losers, and I always prefer to be a observer rather than a participant in the world of sports.

Then pickleball came along. Suddenly, I didn’t want to be an observer any longer. I wanted to be a player myself. Like many people, I was first drawn to the game simply as a safe COVID-19 activity. Playing outdoors with people in my neighborhood allowed me to break out of social isolation(隔离).

But my addiction to the game comes from the sport’s low barrier of entry. The equipment isn’t particularly expensive. It’s a relatively easy game to learn, and a participant doesn’t need to be especially strong, tall or fast. Little wonder that everyone can now be seen throwing a green, orange or yellow plastic ball with holes in it across a net.

Pickleball is the first game I’ve ever wanted to win. I think it’s because of the excitement I feel when I hit an unreturnable ball down the middle of the court and score a point. Participating in a sport myself rather than cheering for others provides real proof that I can still work hard to achieve goals.

So, I’ve made a long-term commitment to it. I am embracing the game as my pickleball buddies embrace me. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to socialize while, doing something active. In that playful space of the court, I am facing directly my fears of winning and losing. In the meantime, doing something outside of my comfort zone feels magical. Now I wonder what contests I might be brave enough to enter next.

8 . Tim was working in his office when he was asked to check on Tony. Feeling _______, Tony had taken himself off to a quiet meeting room to _______ . When a colleague (同事) found him, something was _______wrong.

When Tim walked into the _______, he saw Tony sitting in a chair, looking poorly and breathing very rapidly. He _______ that Tony was having a heart attack.

Tony was in his fifties and generally a _______ man. But the symptoms of a heart attack were there. He was sweating and _______to breathe. He was also complaining of chest pains, so Tim called for a(n)_______ .

Tim offered Tony an aspirin pill to _______ slowly, which can help to thin the blood and may help someone who is having a heart attack. He made sure that Tony continued to ________ in a comfortable position. For peace of mind, he asked a colleague to find an automated external defibrillator (自动体外除颤器), ________ Tony became unresponsive and stopped breathing. ________ he didn’t need to use it.

Tim continued to ________ Tony until the ambulance arrived and Tony was then taken to hospital where he had emergency surgery on his heart. Despite the ________ of the situation, Tony was saved and is now fully recovered.

“Without the first aid skills I learnt, I don’t know if I would have been so level headed when this happened.” Tim said when asked about his ________ actions.

9 . Daniel Brush, an astonishing worker in gold, jewels and steel died on November 2022, aged 75. Students from a jewellery school once came to Brush’s studio, a loft in mid-Manhattan, awed to be meeting a figure who, to them, was a worker of miracles.

For 45 years in that loft, he had pursued his calling. His wife Olivia was the only company. He produced hundreds of objects of all sorts, most of them exquisite and many astonishingly small. Rather than use electricity, he laboured alone in a forest of antique machines and when tools frustrated him he made his own, displaying them in cupboards as art in themselves.

Above all else, he worked in gold. His obsession took fire when at 13 he saw an Etruscan gold bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The ancient technique of applying gold beads as fine as sand-grains to a curved gold surface without solder (焊接), was stunning, but so was the lightness of spirit.

He resolved then that he would make such a bowl, and gold became the study of his life. Simply to watch it melt, turn to red-hot and white-hot, then glow purple, was magical. To hold pure gold grain and let it move slowly through his fingers restored his calm of spirit. His chief motivation, he said, was to understand the material and, through that, himself. He wondered why his heart had beaten so fast in the museum that day. Gold in particular had a message for him. His contact with this glorious metal might focus all his attention and help him to hear it.

He developed delicate craftsmanship, with each object virtually a museum piece. For Daniel Brush, he loved the idea that one might take a piece made by Brush out of a pocket, let its beauty pass from mind to mind, and smile. That too was what its maker was after.

Tea is a healthy drink. Drinking tea in China could be considered as an art and to help people achieve a sense of calm and renewed energy. It is also     1     way to enjoy life better.

Stories     2     are about the discovery of tea are different depending on the people who you ask, but we know that Chinese people have been drinking tea since Shennong, 5,000 years ago. Usually, tea     3     (believe) to be medicinal, and is so central to     4     (day) life that an old Chinese saying includes tea in a list of seven important contents to be gathered each morning, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy and vinegar.

Tea serves three primary     5     (purpose) traditionally in Chinese society: to show status, to bring people together and to improve wellness.

Drinking tea together is a sign of respect. In ancient times, “tribute tea”(贡茶) was     6     (special) kept for and presented to the Emperor. Tea still has a place in the life of the average people. It is common     7     (give) guests a cup of tea to welcome them into the home. But tea is more than a key of social customs. It is meant to act     8     a medium through which people can become much     9     (close) to nature. Drinking tea out in nature will create a spiritual connection to the environment and make people feel     10     (relax).