It was the day of the big cross-country run. Students from seven different primary schools in and around the small town were warming up and walking the route(路线)through thick evergreen forest.

I looked around and finally spotted David, who was standing by himself off to the side by a fence. He was small for ten years old. His usual big toothy smile was absent today. I walked over and asked him why he wasn’t with the other children. He hesitated and then said he had decided not to run.

What was wrong? He had worked so hard for this event!

I quickly searched the crowd for the school’s coach and asked him what had happened. “I was afraid that kids from other schools would laugh at him,” he explained uncomfortably. “I gave him the choice to run or not, and let him decide.”

I bit back my frustration(懊恼). I knew the coach meant well—he thought he was doing the right thing. After making sure that David could run if he wanted, I turned to find him coming towards me, his small body rocking from side to side as he swung his feet forward.

David had a brain disease which prevented him from walking or running like other children, but at school his classmates thought of him as a regular kid. He always participated to the best of his ability in whatever they were doing. That was why none of the children thought it unusual that David had decided to join the cross-country team. It just took him longer—that’s all. David had not missed a single practice, and although he always finished his run long after the other children, he did always finish. As a special education teacher at the school, I was familiar with the challenges David faced and was proud of his strong determination.

Last Friday my mom decided to color his hair. She studied with all the hair products at the drugstore. The color she choose came in a box which had a picture of a woman that hair color looked just perfect. Mom was sure same color would look great on her. She put the new color on her hair or sat still for 30 minutes, just as the directions saying. However, instead of the brownish red hair she had hoped for, she final got purple hair. She went right into the shower to washing it, but it was no use. At least one thing proved truth: the color wouldn’t wash out.

The Meredith family lived in a small community. As the economy was in decline, some people in the town had lost their jobs. Many of their families were struggling to make ends meet. People were trying to help each other meet the challenges.

Mrs. Meredith was a most kind and thoughtful woman. She spent a great deal of time visiting the poor. She knew they had problems, and they needed all kinds of help. When she had time, she would bring food and medicine to them.

One morning she told her children about a family she had visited the day before. There was a man sick in bed, his wife, who took care of him and could not go out to work, and their little boy. The little boy -his name was Bernard-had interested her very much.

“I wish you could see him,” she said to her own children, John, Harry, and Clara. “He is such a help to his mother. He wants very much to earn some money, but I don't see what he can do.”

After their mother left the room, the children sat thinking about Bernard. “I wish we could help him to earn money,” said Clara. “His family is suffering so much.”

“So do I,” said Harry. “We really should do something to assist them.”

For some moments, John said nothing, but, suddenly, he sprang to his feet and cried, “I have a great idea! I have a solution that we can all help accomplish(完成).”

The other children also jumped up all attention. When John had an idea, it was sure to be a good one. “I tell you what we can do,” said John. “You know that big box of corn Uncle John sent us? Well, we can make popcorn(爆米花), and put it into paper bags, and Bernard can take it around to the houses and sell it.”

5 . It’s about 250 miles from the hills of west-central Iowa to Ehlers’ home in Minnesota. During the long trip home, following a weekend of hunting. Ehlers _______about the small dog he had seen _______ alongside the road. He had _______ to coax(哄) the dog to him but, frightened, it had _______.

Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that _______ dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove _______. After a long and careful _______, Greg saw, across a field, the dog moving _______ away. Ehlers eventually succeeded in coaxing the animal to him. Nervousness and fear were replaced with _______. It just started licking(舔) Ehlers’ face.

A local farmer told them the dog sounded like one ________ as lost in the local paper. The ad had a ________ number for a town in southern Michigan. Ehlers ________ the number of Jeff and Lisa to tell them he had ________ their dog.

Jeff had ________ in Iowa before Thanksgiving with his dog, Rosie, but the gun shots had scared the dog off. Jeff searched ________ for Rosie in the next four days.

Ehlers returned to Minnesota, and then drove 100 miles to Minneapolis to put Rosie on a flight to Michigan. “It’s good to know there’s still someone out there who ________ enough to go to that kind of ________,”says Lisa of Ehlers’ rescue ________.

“I figured whoever lost the dog was probably just as ________ to it as I am to my dogs,” says Ehlers. “If it had been my dog, I’d hope that somebody would be ________ to go that extra mile.”

7 . The small town of Rjukan in Norway is situated between several mountains and does not get direct sunlight from late September to mid-March- _______ six months out of the year.

“Of course, we _______ it when the sun is shining,” says Karin Ro, who works for the town’s tourism office. “We see the sky is _______, but down in the valley it’s darker — it’s like on a _______ day.”

But that _______ when a system of high-tech _______ was introduced to reflect sunlight from neighboring peaks(山峰) into the valley below. Wednesday, residents(居民) of Rjukan _______ their very first ray of winter sunshine: A row of reflective boards on a nearby mountainside were put to _______. The mirrors are controlled by a computer that _______ them to turn along with the sun throughout the ________ and to close during windy weather. They reflect a concentrated beam(束) of light onto the town’s central ________, creating an area of sunlight roughly 600 square meters. When the light ________, Rjukan residents gathered together.

“People have been ________ there and standing there and taking ________ of each other,” Ro says. “The town square was totally ________. I think almost all the people in the town were there.” The 3,500 residents cannot all ________ the sunshine at the same time. ________, the new light feels like more than enough for the town’s ________ residents.

“It’s not very ________,” she says, “but it is enough when we are ________.”

9 . 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＂.

10 . No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own _________

I learned this lesson from a(n) _________ many years ago. I took the head _________ job at a school in Baxley, Georgia. It was a small school with a weak football program.

It was a tradition for the school’s old team to play against the _________ team at the end of spring practice. The old team had no coach, and they didn’t even practice to ___________ the game. Being the coach of the new team, I was excited because I knew we were going to win, but to my disappointment we were defeated. I couldn’t _________ I had got into such a situation. Thinking hard about it, I came to _________ that my team might not be the number one team in Georgia, but they were ___________ me. I had to change my _________ about their ability and potential.

I started doing anything I could to help them build a little ____________. Most important, I began to treat them like ____________. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their ____________, we met every day and ______________ passing and kicking the football.

Six months after suffering our ______________ on the spring practice field, we won our first game and our second, and continued to ____________. Finally, we faced the number one team in the state. I felt that it would be a ____________ for us even if we lost the game. But that wasn’t what happened. My boys beat the best team in Georgia, giving me one of the greatest ____________ of my life！

From the experience I learnt a lot about how the attitude of the leader can ____________ the members of a team. Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I pushed and ______________ them. I helped them to see themselves ____________, and they built themselves into winners.

Winners are made, but born.