During the 2023 Lanzhou International Marathon, all eyes were on the elderly couple—Hu Yingfu, 86, and his wife Wang Zhangmin, 77. Many doubted their ability to finish the race,     1     Hu completed the half marathon in two hours and twenty minutes.

Against initial struggles, Hu found a way to motivate himself by counting electric poles while running. “The distance between each electric pole is 50 meters. I run as fast as I can, passing a dozen or so poles.” said Hu.     2     (gradua), his endurance improved, along with his physical condition.

The couple’s love for running started as a way     3     (improve) their fitness, but it quickly became a passion, They participated in a national athletics event     4     the elderly in 2004,     5     (mark) their first-ever national competition. To their surprise, Wang achieved     6     impressive result—the fourth place.

Since then, the elderly couple have become regular     7     (participate) in national athletics events, consistently winning medals, and they     8     (recognize) as well-known figures in the running community.

With a     9     (combine) age of 163, the couple have participated in over 100 marathon races nationwide, whose impact has motivated     10     (count) young individuals to become part of the running community.

I was a boy of nine in 1960. At school, I     1     (intent) did my lessons. At the expense of my studying time, I used to mow the lawn for Mrs. Long,     2     occupation was an architect. She was one of the     3     (specialist) in the field of architecture. Her family was comprised     4     four people. The motivation of the mission was to make the lawn tidy and elegant. Sometimes, the work took     5     about two hours a day. She paid me little for the job, but that she promised to give me a Christmas present filled me with hope.

I spent much time wondering what it would be. Many boys had baseball gloves or ice skates bought for them and I was eager to have any of these. “As I can imagine, it will hardly be baseball gloves,” I reasoned with myself.   “She doesn’t know much about baseball.” So according to my rough     6     (analyze), I was convinced that she might give me ice skates.

As Christmas approached, it was with difficulty that I stopped myself from reporting to Mrs. Long and demanding my present. On December 20, I told my parents, “At 9 o’clock on December 22, I will be appearing at the door of Mrs. Long’s house.” That Mrs. Long handed me a small box which under no circumstances could hold a pair of skates was     7     made me feel disappointed.     8     (lift) from her, the present seemed so light, about which I was curious. It weighed almost nothing. When the present was being held by me at the moment, I asked, “What is it?” “A kind of magic,” she said.

On Christmas morning, I had this box on my knees. It was with great excitement that I opened the box to find inside ten sheets of black paper, each labeled in colorful letters, Carbon Paper Regal Premium. In view of this, I asked, “What is it?” Mum took two pieces of white paper, placed between them one of the black paper, and     9     (write) my name on the upper sheet. Then she handed me the second sheet, which her pencil had in no way touched. There was my name! In that one moment, I remembered the ideas about the duplication (复制) of words and the printing and the mystery of spreading ideas. This was one of the most     10     (influence) experiences in my life.

Knowing me, knowing you

One night, a married couple got into a fight. The reason     1     they had a fight was that the woman had bought too expensive a dress. It was common for them to stay in a war of silence after such a fight. And this time was not different. For most of the night, the couple     2    (ignore) each other and even when preparing for bed, they didn’t say a word.

However, her husband started getting anxious because he would catch a flight at 5:00 am the next morning. He always devoted     3    (he) to his work.     4    (give) a promotion(晋升) in his company recently, he made more efforts to do his work. The man was a heavy sleeper and     5    (absolute) depended on his wife to wake him up. Otherwise, there was a good chance that he would sleep right through the alarm.

In order not to lose face, he didn’t speak with her directly although he wanted to, but he wrote something on a piece of paper, reading, “Please wake me up when it’s 5:00 am.” He put the note on his wife’s pillow,     6    (believe) that his wife would for sure see it there. He then fell asleep with satisfaction.

The next morning when he woke up, it was already 7:00 am! He took     7     deep breath because he couldn’t take his journey to meet their customers that day. He thought     8     some extent, his boss as well as their customers was sure to get annoyed with him. To his     9    (embarrass), he was preparing to blame his wife when he noticed a handwritten note beside his pillow, saying, “It’s 5:00 am. You     10     get up right now, needn’t you? A note has been put beside your pillow already.”

Most of the time, how you say something is more important than what you actually say. When you need something, do not let pride get in the way of asking for help in the right way!

Zheng Chao, who grew up in Jiaoyao village, a high-altitude mountainous area with poor land, was raised by tea. His family, which has been growing tea     1     three generations, used to have trouble putting food on the table,     2     now he earns 70, 000 yuan a year just from selling tea.

In 2019, Kuang and seven other young people in the village set up a tea cooperative. With the support of the economic cooperative in their village, they     3     (successful) integrated the resources of the tea industry, and carried out the model of unified (统一的) planting, fertilization, processing and sales, attempting     4     (achieve) high quality and a good flavor. An old house in the village     5       (transform) into a tea processing and exhibition workshop, while the house facing the green     6     (mountain)and the tea garden became a separate tea tasting room.

Last year, the cooperative assigned 40 percent of its     7     (expect) earnings to the shareholders in the village.     8     Mao Huayan, Kuang’s wife, received her bonus of 1,097 yuan, she felt like a child     9     (get) “lucky” money during Spring Festival. More important was the     10         (industry)development that helped them to accumulate wealth.

“I just made it to the South Pole!”

Meet Harpreet Kaur Chandi, also known as Polar Preet, the 33-year-old who has been making headlines all over the world after    1     (become) the first woman of color to complete a solo expedition across Antarctica.

“The reason    2    I chose Antarctica was that Ⅰ didn’t know much about it, and I thought, if I could do something that pushes me so far out of my comfort zone,    3    (hopeful) it’ll inspire other people    4    (do) the same,” said she.

As a part of her tough expedition, Preet endured temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius, and wind speeds of up to 96 kilometers per hour. She    5    (walk) around 27 kilometers a day, pulling a 90-kilogram sled containing her equipment.

“It was generally windy, and there were only two     6    (day) that I can remember when there was slight wind. There were times when it was so hard, and I just thought “This is the     7    (tough) thing I’ve ever done, how am I going to keep going?” And I would break it down and I’d take one step at     8    time, but I never thought, “I’m going to give    9    .”

Despite all the hardships and challenges, Preet says that there’s no stopping and that she has started training for    10    (she) next adventure.

One morning, Mr. Wolf told his wife he would catch some toads (癞蛤蟆)for her to eat.     1     (hear) these annoying words, Mrs. Wolf grabbed a pan to beat him. Not wanting to     2     (scold) by his wife, Mr. Wolf decided to invent something to help him catch goats. He got     3     (inspire) when he saw a spring(弹簧) and invented a pair of spring shoes. With the magic shoes, Mr. Wolf     4     (jump) onto the sky above the sheep village where the goats were practicing spears (标枪). Seeing Mr. Wolf, the goats immediately threw their spears at him with a     5     (frighten) look on their faces. Hearing a loud noise, Red Wolf opened the door and found her husband     6     (trap) to the wall with many spears in his body. As a determined inventor, Mr. Wolf didnˈt lose heart. He improved his invention and made a new pair of spring shoes, hoping     7     (catch) the goats.

In order to defeat Big Big Wolf, Slow Goat     8     (lose) in thought. Suddenly, a good idea occurred to him. After a few days’ experiment, a magic insole (鞋垫) was invented,     9     (make) Mr. Wolf badly injured as he hit his house heavily. And he had to have his house     10    (repair)in the following week.

One afternoon     1    Charlie Chaplin was sitting together with his friends talking, a fly flew into the room and kept     2     (fly) around the great actor’s head. Charlie Chaplin waved his hands     3    (drive) it away, but the fly soon came back again.For once it even rested on     4    (he) nose! The great actor got very     5    (anger). He took up a fly swatter (苍蝇拍) and swung at it,     6    the fly got away in time. Then the offender (冒犯者) stayed on the table before him. Chaplin     7    (lift) the swatter for the death blow — he was sure this time he would kill it. But after he looked at it     8    (careful), Chaplin put down the swatter.

“Why didn’t you kill it?” asked one of his friends.

Chaplin shrugged his     9    (shoulder). “It wasn’t     10    same fly,” he said.