1 . My First Marathon（马拉松）

A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.

I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do either well. He later informed me that I was ＂not athletic＂.

The idea that I was ＂not athletic＂ stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.

Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces(鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

At mile 3, I passed a sign: ＂GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!＂

By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

By mile 21, I was starving!

As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a ＂marathon winner＂.

2 . When it came time to vote for the speaker at graduation in the class meeting, Ms. Lenihan asked who would like to be our class speaker. Being a (an) ________ girl, I tried not to make eye contact. Seeing several classmates go up to the front to state why they should be the speakers, I felt a sense of ________. But at last Ms. Lenihan ________ in front of us and said, “We will have another meeting this week, and I expect to see more participation. I am ________ that some of you are just sitting there when you should be up here!” When she said those words, I looked up to see she was glaring right at me. I felt so nervous, but knowing she had so much ________ in me, I should not let her down.

After spending the whole week practicing a speech, I stood up in front of my classmates. There were eight to ten other participants, and I didn’t ________ much for myself. When the votes came in the next day, Ms. Lenihan announced that the class chose me! I would have to stand up in front of our entire school to make a speech. My ________ level went through the roof, but Ms. Lenihan told me she was glad that I had stepped up to the ________.

Over the next month I worked on my graduation speech. When I stood up in front of the whole school, I was still nervous, ________ when I looked at Ms. Lenihan, I remembered the whole reason I was up there was that she believed in me. I believe I ________ that day, and will always remember the encouragement that Ms. Lenihan gave me.

3 . As a teenager, I was pretty lazy when it came to doing things for my family. I found myself regularly resisting the urge to help out at home with even the simplest things.

Every Wednesday afternoon, for example, my mother drove me to another town for a piano lesson. During my two-hour lesson, she’d______ to the nearby store and buy a week’s worth of groceries. Given the fact that my mom had driven me twelve miles there, twelve miles back, ______   for my lesson, and bought me a candy bar, you’d think I’d be very ______ to help her bring the groceries into the house. But I wasn’t. I generally just brought in an armload and left the______ for Mom as I ran to my room, shut the door, and started studying.

Don’t get me wrong: even back in my room, I felt______about not helping my mother more. Deep inside, I wanted to change my way. But I also realized that______I took on more responsibility, my parents would start _____ more of me. At age fifteen, I sensed that this one small change would mark something much bigger: my personal change from a cared-for, spoiled child to a more ______, caring and giving young man.

I’ll never forget the Wednesday when I made a decision to jump in and see what happened. Returning home from the lesson, I disappeared into my room, as usual. But once inside, I felt that deep and burning______. Throwing my school books on the bed, I suddenly opened my door and headed back to the garage to help my mother.

How happy I felt that day!

The neat thing was, the more I helped out, the better I felt about myself and my place in my family. As Mom and Dad realized they could _______ on me more, our trips became far less stressful, too. In short, it was a win-win situation for everyone.

Sometimes the little things we put off doing the longest turn out to be the simplest things to complete. And feeling happy beats feeling guilty any day.

I love music. When I was 16, I formed my first band     1    (call) Frog. At the beginning, we depended on playing instruments in the street to earn money. Then we wore false beards pretending to be famous musicians. In addition, we added    2    (humor) acts to our performances and played jokes on one another. Soon，our “funny jazz” became famous and we     3    (invite) to perform everywhere. Afterwards, we made a record in a studio. About one million     4    (copy) were sold and we became rich and popular.

I can well remember the first time I was asked to deliver a speech before the whole class. You can imagine how shy I was with so many eyes     1     (fix) on me. Drafting the speech was a piece of cake for me, but the difficult part lay in oral    2     (present). The real moment began when I stood on the stage with my legs trembling and my mind blank. But my listeners were waiting patiently without rushing me. Gradually I found myself back,     3     (deliver) the speech with difficulty. After    4     seemed to be a hundred years, I found my audience applauding — I made it!

9 . When I was in my first year of high school, I had a terrible time when every area of my life was a disaster. I felt so hopeless and alone that I thought everything was impossible.

On one such day, I was walking from class across the school to catch the school bus home, with my head down, fighting tears of total hopelessness, when a young man came down the sidewalk toward me. Though I had never seen him before, I did not want him to see that I was in such low spirits, so I turned my head away and hoped to hurry past. I thought he'd walk on by, but he moved until he was directly in front of me, waited until I looked up, and then smiled.

Looking into my eyes, this stranger spoke in a quiet voice: “Whatever is wrong will pass. You're going to be OK, just hang on.” He then smiled again and walked away.

I can't explain the effect of that man's unexpected kindness and caring! He gave me the one thing that I'd lost completely—hope. I looked for him in our school to thank him, but never saw him again.

That was thirty years ago. And I've never forgotten that moment. Over the years, whenever I see someone who is in trouble, I will always think of that young man and try to give a flash of hope in the dark wherever I can. I carry things for people when they are too heavy for them, sit with naughty babies in the waiting room while their mothers are busy, or talk to tired couples at the checkout line or it could be anything. If you keep your head up, your heart will show you the place that needs hope.

10 . Inspiration

“Mama, when I grow up, I’m going to be one of those!” I said this after seeing the Capital Dancing Company perform when I was three. It was the first time that my _______ took on a vivid form and acted as something important to start my training. As I grew older and was exposed to more, my interests in the world of dance _______ varied but that little girl’s dream of someday becoming a dancer in the company never left me. In the summer of 2005 when I was 18, I received the phone call which made that dream a reality: I became a member of the company dating back to 1925.

As I look back on that day now, it surely _______ any sense of reality. I believe I stayed in a state of pleasant disbelief _______ I was halfway through rehearsals (排练) on my first day. I never actually _______ to get the job. After being offered the position, I was completely _______. I remember shaking with excitement.

Though I was absolutely thrilled with the change, it did not come without its fair share of challenges. Through the strict rehearsal period of dancing six days a week, I found it vital to _______ up the material fast with every last bit of concentration. It is that extreme attention to detail and stress on practice that set us apart. To then follow those high-energy rehearsals with a busy show schedule of up to five performances a day, I discovered a new meaning of the words “hard work”. What I thought were my physical _______ were pushed much further than I thought possible. I learned to make each performance better than the last.

Today, when I look at the unbelievable company that I have the great _______ of being a part of, not only as a member, but as a dance captain, I see a ________ that has inspired not only generations of little girls but a splendid company that continues to develop and grow—and inspires people every day to follow their dreams.