1 . At the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, halfway in the women’s slalom (障碍滑雪) race, 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin took a commanding lead over the greatest women’s slalom skiers in the world. On her final run, she burst from the start house at a breakneck speed, snaking around the poles in crazy rhythm.

Skiing has always been a significant part of Mikaela’s life. Her mom raced and coached skiing and her dad ski raced all through college. The Shiffrins taught Mikaela and her brother, Taylor, to ski at a very young age. At the age of two and a half, Mikaela made her first ski run on plastic skis. From ages 8 to 11, she worked hard, practicing hundreds of training runs on small hills repeatedly to develop the correct techniques of slalom skiing.

When Mikaela was 11, she attended the Burke Mountain Academy, a Vermont boarding school for skiers. She took classes, studied, and practiced her skiing crazily. According to Kirk Dwyer, Burke Mountain Academy headmaster, “It was the degree of Mikaela’s effort to be the best that distinguished her from others. Her commitment to conditioning, having proper sleep, eating correctly, doing the drills, and watching video was unusual for an 11 to 13-year-old. Mikaela practiced more than anyone and believed in herself then and now.”

By the time she was 17, she had already won her first World Cup race.

Working hard is a full-time job for Mikaela. Even her off-season is work time. In the summer, when Mikaela is off the ski slopes and in the gym, her daily training consists of six to seven hours of weight lifting, swimming, and biking to improve her core strength and flexibility. She does all of this so that she can dash down slopes at speeds topping 50 miles per hour while cutting back and forth around gates with astonishing precision.

“If you have passion for your targets, whatever they are,” she says, “the sky is the limit. Give it your all!”

When it comes to volleyball, we can’t help     1     (think) of Lang Ping. Lang Ping used to be a     2     (fame) player. Now she is also known     3     a coach. Led by her, Chinese women volleyball team won the world championship in 2019,     4     made the whole nation excited.

Lang Ping was born in Tianjin in 1960. Lang began playing volleyball as a teenager and     5     (eventual) joined the national team in 1978. Her height made     6     possible for her to play volleyball well. With time going by, Lang Ping played better and better. Lang Ping and her teammates played so well that they won champions several     7     (time) in the 1980s.

After she     8     (retire) in 1986, Lang Ping coached volleyball in Italy and America. In 1995, she returned to China to work as a coach. She was too busy with her work to take care of her family. In 2016 Chinese women volleyball team won     9     gold medal at the Olympics in Brazil. Because of the victory, Lang Ping became the first person in the volleyball     10     (win) an Olympic gold medal as both a player and a coach. And, Lang Ping and her team won another world championship in 2019 for our motherland.

4 . The girl Guo Yujie got a _______ gift on Saturday—a gold medal of Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. The teenager, who turned 18 on March 16, sped to the finish _______ in the women’s sprint standing event to _______ the first-ever Winter Paralympic gold medal for a Chinese woman on snow. She hoped to tell the young people with disabilities that they should keep _______.

Guo was born in Shangyi county, Zhangjiakou, with disabilities on her left hand. She first tried _______ when she was 11. “I was happy when I was skiing,” Guo said. She then _______ to become a cross-country skier and biathlete. Her decision was also _______ by her family.

In biathlon (冬季两项), Guo _______ her lack of stamina (耐力) in skiing with accuracy and speed in the shooting part. “I just _______ the quick change between high-speed racing and controlling my breathing for ________. I hope more young people with disability can find their ________ in snow sports. Actually, disabled people are not ________ at anything. We can take part in the Winter Paralympics and become ________. People shouldn’t look down on themselves just because of their disabilities,” Guo said.

Guo’s ________ is the result of five years of hard training. She said that her parents, relatives, and friends watched her compete live on TV. “They are all very proud of me. ________, I have lived up to their expectations.”

It was at the 2012 1SU World Figure Skating Championships that I first saw Japanese figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru. He was competing in free skating with a piece of music from Romeo and Juliet. I was    1     (immediate) attracted to his incredible     2    (perform) along with the expressive music.

Yuzuru has been     3    inspiration for me in my years as a senior high school student. In his career, he    4     (experience) innumerable difficulties and countless injuries so far. In 2014’s ISU Grand Prix, he was badly hurt on the ice due to a collision (碰撞). Though he was bleeding, he still insisted on     5    (compete) with no regrets. What’s more, in the 2018 Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, he couldn’t even walk because of a problem with the ligament (韧带) in his right ankle. But he ended up winning the championship and then    6    (award) the gold medal.

Yuzuru has always trained hard despite the suffering from asthma (哮喘). He bravely     7    (overcome) difficulties so he can dance on the ice and live life to the fullest. From 2012 to 2021, I have been inspired by Yuzuru’s spirit,    8    has helped me push forward no matter what. When    9    (face) with any problem that I think I can’t handle in life, such as being burdened with homework or when my grades are sliding (下滑), I watch videos of Yuzuru skating over and over again to search     10     hope and perseverance. After all, he succeeded against so much uncertainty. So how could I not face my own problems?

9 . Most people who ran the marathon last month spent days before resting up and days after recovering. But not Jacky Hunt-Broersma. In total, she ran 104 marathons in 104 days. If it’s confirmed by Guinness World Records, that would be a new world record. And she did it all with one leg and a prosthesis (假肢).

“Someone able-bodied had done it previously. I wanted to see if I could do it on a prosthetic leg and see what would happen,” she said. “I thought it would be a great way to inspire others to push their limits because I truly believe that we’re stronger than what we think. And I’ve been so pleasantly surprised that my body is held up, everything is held up and I’ve made it to 104.”

She actually did not pick up the sport until after she lost the lower part of her left leg in 2001 to a type of cancer called Ewing sarcoma. Runners using a prosthetic leg can’t use a regular one. They need a running blade (刀锋式跑步义肢). Hunt-Broersma has two, but she was only able to run with one because of the swelling she experienced in her left leg that made it impossible to connect to the other blade. But even with the pain that occurred, she has been able to put up with it and continued.

All together, Hunt-Broersma ran over 4, 385 kilometers. During that time she has had a lot of time to think and has learned a few things about herself. “It has taught me how strong one can be and how important absolute determination is. If you’re mentally strong, you can do anything,” she said. “And our bodies are just amazing ... This whole journey was impressive and super hard, but it’s told me how strong I can be as a person and how far I can push myself.”

10 . Ma Long, born in Anshan, Liaoning, the “home of table tennis”, was sent by his father to practise table tennis when he was 5 years old, and he went to Shenyang at the age of 11. At 15, Ma Long joined the national team. Although he was the least talkative boy of the players, his perseverance (坚持不懈) was as great as his overall strength in table tennis. In 2006, at 18, Ma Long, together with his teammates, won a team world championship.

His daily routine was a two-point line between the dormitory and the training hall, and he was the first to arrive and the last to leave on a daily basis. He had been doing so for ten years. His coach Liu Guoliang once said, “I went to the table tennis hall on a Sunday morning for an unannounced inspection (突击检查) to see how many players were training on Sunday. Only one person in the men’s first team was there. A genius (天才) is not your fear, but your fear is that a genius works harder than you do.” Such a genius is Ma Long.

However, after joining the team for nearly a decade, he suffered various types of failure. At that time, Zhang Jike, another top player, returned to the national team. From then on, Zhang was so invincible that he achieved the personal Grand Slam (大满贯) within only 445 days. Seeing Zhang’s achievements, Ma Long, at the lowest point, had the idea of retiring. But he was unwilling to just “disappear”.

Then came the Suzhou 2015 World Championship, Ma Long crowned his career, winning the singles champion.