1 . A fresh and gentle wind on your face, soft sand under your feet and blue waters as far as the eye can see. Is there any other Olympic sport that is played in such pleasant conditions as beach volleyball？

“I’ve gone to a lot of beautiful places, and met a lot of beautiful people. That wouldn’t have happened if I had been playing another sport.” said Randy Stoklos, America’s most famous beach volleyball player.

The sport began as a four-a-side game on beaches in Southern California in the 1920s. The first recorded two-man game took place there in 1930, and the first tournament (锦标赛) was held in Los Angeles 18 years later. The winners were awarded a case of Pepsi. In the 1950s, women started playing and the sport soon spread to Europe and South America. Yet at that time, beach volleyball was more an entertainment show than a sport, with beauty contests included. The Association of Volleyball Professionals was founded in 1983 and beach volleyball developed into a fast, athletic sport. Its world-wide popularity won beach volleyball a place at the 1996 Olympics in Atalanta, where 24 male teams and 16 female teams took part. At present, the US and Brazil are the best in the world at beach volleyball.

The game came to China in the early 1990s and there have been national tournaments since 1994. It became an official event at the Eighth National Games in 1997. China’s You Wenhui and Wang Lu finished ninth in the women’s beach volleyball world championships in Brazil.

2 . When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: I was very _________, I wasn’t a good student, I_________ too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to bear all this _________I could. But at last, I became very _________. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

He listened to me _________. Then he asked, “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re like? Well, you now have that girl’s _________. Go and make a list of everything she said and _________ the points that are true. Pay _________attention to the other things she said.”

I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t _________(like being very thin), but a good number I could — and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I got a clear __________of myself.

I brought the list back to Daddy. He __________to take it. “That’s just for __________,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the __________about yourself. But you have to learn to __________, not just close your ears in anger feeling __________. When something said about you is true , you’ll find it will be of __________to you. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, __________hear the truth and do what you know is the __________ thing to do.

Daddy’s advice has __________me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a __________piece of advice.