1 . Exercise can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, so there are a lot of great reasons to exercise.

Sometimes exercise can feel like a bit of a ________, something you have to do for health ________. But regular exercise can ________ your life, whether it helps you overcome stress, learn something about yourself, or help you ________ your body. Here are 2 stories from people who moved their bodies in new and sometimes ________ ways, and found out that it changed their life for the better.

I have had depression (沮丧, 抑郁) a couple of times and I also have general anxiety disorder. I found that longboarding around the city really ________ my mood the last time I was going through a ________ of depression. I don’t skate much anymore, but I have picked up ________ the past three years. All I can think about when I am climbing is climbing. It has been a ________ for my anxiety to be able to completely throw away the worries in my head and just think about getting to the top.

When I was 23, my grandpa sadly passed away. Hearing my mom’s message, I was ________. The tears couldn’t stop swimming in my eyes and I ________ control, I was just starting my track season and I decided that I should get a head start and start running. When I felt like crying or screaming or anything, I would get up and go for a ________. That year I ________ my personal best by over a minute and I ran my first half marathon. Since then I ran another half marathon, full marathon, and am ________ training for a second marathon. Running just ________ emotion for me.

5 . Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, “The British are the only people who like to be told how bad things are.” This is definitely (绝对地) true of British comedy. Most people think humor is about happy things, but for the British, the opposite is true. We love to use our cruel sense of humor to complain and be negative (消极的).

British comedy, for example, draws a fine line between comedy and tragedy (悲剧). BBC’s The Office is a TV show, famous for its dry humor. The main character, David Brent, is a foolish man, and the show’s comedy comes from his delusions. For example, he often tells himself that he is loved by everyone but the viewer can see that everyone hates him.

Stupid characters for the audience to laugh at are an old tradition in Britain. In Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio is an old man whom people play tricks on. The audience will laugh away, although the reality is that this man is a truly tragic individual (个体).

This side of British humor is reflected (反映) in friendships as well. At university, my friends and I would always laugh at one another. I had an American friend who actually found this sarcasm (挖苦) quite upsetting. She didn’t realize that in Britain, the better friends you are with someone, the more you laugh at them.

This approach — laughing at everything — may sound rather depressing (让人郁闷的), but our strange humor played a big part in British history. In World War II, along with a stiff upper lip (坚定沉着), the British got through it by laughing. What else was there to do?

There is a saying in English: “Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone.” If you are ever on the receiving end of British sarcasm, you may feel like crying, but it’s best to just laugh it off!

7 . Last year I ruined my summer vacation by bringing along a modern convenience: the iPad.

Instead of looking at nature, I _______ my e-mail. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading _______newspapers each morning. And that was the problem: I was acting as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation but my _______ wasn’t.

So this year I made up my mind to try something _______: getting away from the Internet. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, _______ I’m not good at self-control. But I was _______. I started by handing the iPad to my wife. Then, a stroke of luck: The mobile phone _______ at our cabin was worse than in the past. I was _______, forced to carry out my plan. Largely cut off from e-mail and my favourite newspaper websites, I had little way to _______ the world. I had no ________ but to do what I had planned to do all along: read books.

With determination and the strong support of my wife, I succeeded in my vacation struggle against the Internet. I finally ________ that it was me, of course, not the iPad, that was the ________.

I knew I had ________ when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi. “Don’t need it,” I said. ________, as we return to work, a test begins: Can I survive when I’m back at work? I don’t plan to ________ my iPad completely. But I hope to resist the temptation (抵抗诱惑) to use it every five minutes.

Yours,

Li Hua

That’s all ! Thank you for listening !