1 . Carli Lloyd is grateful for the opportunity to play professional volleyball again after leaving the court.

She _________ Athletes Unlimited (AU) with opening up the door to _________ her dreams that were put on pause. “I wasn’t sure what it would look like,” Lloyd said. “AU has given me the _________ to play again. It’s amazing to be a _________ of the organization.”

While Lloyd was pregnant and shortly after giving birth to her daughter, she had hopes of returning to the _________. Lloyd spent months at home training and preparing for the _________. “I worked really hard at home to get my body back in _________. I wanted to see how it felt to _________ again.”

“My goal every week is to be _________ to my team. I want to do everything I can to help my team win the __________. Each day I’m thinking about what my __________ is and how I can help this group succeed.”

She believes in teamwork. __________, when asked the way the league is structured, Lloyd said she felt great anxiety initially for fear that the __________ may be more on the individual and less on the __________. “Volleyball is a team sport, all the pieces __________ and you need cooperation to be successful.” Lloyd said.

2 . On Sunday, Tara VanDerveer, Stanford University’s coach, got her 1,203rd victory in a game against Oregon State University at Maples Pavilion. The _________ has helped her set an all-time record for most-wins in the history of college _________ — men’s or women’s. Celebrations had already _________ two days before, when the 70-year-old coach _________ the most-wins record.

Instead of _________ her own achievements, VanDerveer shifted the attention to the players and their _________.

“I just _________ how our teams battled,” VanDerveer told the Pac-12 Network. “It’s just a tribute (致敬) to the _________ basketball teams I’ve taught, the nice places I’ve worked and got so much _________.”

It’s VanDerveer’s latest milestone in a __________ career marked by success. During the 1995-96 season, she took leave from Stanford to __________ head coach of the women’s national team which she led to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta to __________ a gold medal with an undefeated record.

In a recent __________ with The New York Times, VanDerveer reflected how __________ women’s college basketball has gone. “When I __________ Stanford in 1985, we girls had to practice at 7:30 at night because the __________ went from 2 to 7. We just had hamburgers when we returned to our __________ at 9:30 or 10 o’clock at night. We had to __________ our own uniforms and shoes while the boys could get everything free from the school,” she said. “Just to see the __________ the girls get now: They can get equal support from the school. Such treatment is more than I ever could have __________.”

3 . Can you imagine the power of a father? On Sept.17, 2022, a man and his son ______ to begin the first of three legs of the Ironman competition in Cambridge. Jeff Agar, 59, and his son, Johnny Agar, weren’t the ______ participants. Johnny has suffered from a brain disease and finds difficulty in ______. Consequently, throughout the race, Jeff would ______ as Johnny’s, arms and legs.

The race began with a 2.4-mile swim in a river. With one end of a rope ______ around his back and the other to a kayak (皮艇) with Johnny in, Jeff ______ into the water. Swimming while dragging another person is ______ enough. The pair completed the swim in 90 minutes, and here came the next ______: a 112-mile bicycle ride. Their special bike has an additional seat in the back for Johnny that ______ backward, which made it easier to observe and cheer on other ______ behind.

After roughly nine hours, they set their sights on the final leg — a 26.2-mile marathon with Jeff ______ Johnny in the racing chair. ______, Jeff and Johnny managed to pick up the pace. With only 200 feet to the finish line, Jeff ______ to help Johnny out of his racing chair. After years of tough ______, Johnny was determined to finish the last part of the race on his own.

Eventually, the ______ pair crossed the finish line together. As the crowd. cheered loudly, the tired Jeff just kept a low profile. “He didn’t want his finish line moment,” says Johnny. “He wanted it to be mine.”

4 . Many years ago, I swam the English Channel and people think I’m a superhuman and fearless. Last year I _________ for a 10 km mass-participation swimming race. I _________ last year’s results and calculated that, at my current _________, I would probably have come last. I was _________ about pulling out.

But when January came around, I decided to have another _________. For a few months, I trained hard, but I didn’t get any _________. Then on June 5, the event kicked off at 9:30. As the day wore on, I somehow didn’t mind that, _________, almost everyone was ahead. Certainly, there were a _________ of swimmers still near me, and _________ we shared the same river, we quietly occupied our own spaces. As I __________ doing my own thing, I realized I was enjoying myself.

In the end, it took me four hours and 29 minutes to complete the __________ journey. As I struggled out of water, I was greeted with __________ cheers and applause. I noticed there were many swimmers, behind me, out of a __________ of around 300 event-goers. At that moment, I was just __________, proud and happy to finish. My __________ of coming last gently died away.

5 . In 2022, a father and his son set out to begin the first of three legs of the Ironman (铁人三项) competition. Jeff, 59, and son, Johnny, 28, weren’t the typical ________. Johnny is disabled and Jeff would ________ his arms and legs. To ________ the competition, athletes must complete a(n) ________ 140 miles of swimming, bicycling and running within 17 hours.

“I wanted to ________ his dreams,” Jeff said. “I started doing things I never would have dreamt possible.” Finishing the Ironman competition would be another dream come true.

The race began with a 2.4-mile swim in the Choptank River. The ________ completed the swim in 90 minutes, and completed the difficult bike part in eight hours, then set their sights on the ________ leg of the race — a 26.2-mile marathon with Jeff ________ Johnny in the racing chair. They’d been competing for 5 hours, leaving another 3 hours to make their time. But at mile 19, Jeff began to panic, convinced they were going too slow. Somehow he ________ the energy to pick up the pace.

With 15 minutes left and 200 feet to the finish line, Jeff stopped to help Johnny out of his racing chair. In the first decade of his life, Johnny could only walk 23 steps. ________, after years of painstaking work, he ________ his step number and was determined to finish his races on his own. Johnny saw the clock ticking down and ________ they wouldn’t complete it. “Not because I wouldn’t get my moment,” he says, “but because Dad had worked so hard.”

After 16 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds — with just four minutes and 25 seconds to ________— father and son crossed the finish line together.

As the crowd cheered on an excited Johnny, a(n) ________ Jeff kept a low profile (保持低调).

“He didn’t want his finish line moment,” says Johnny. “He wanted it to be ________.”

6 . The Martin County High School boys’ basketball team was in the final quarter of a nail-biter of a game at a regional tournament in Pikeville, Ky., when live music ______ started playing for them.

They knew it wasn’t their school’s ______ 23-member band —which was unable to ______ the game because of a bus driver shortage. The music was coming from the nearly 100-member band of a rival (对手的) school, Pike County Central High School. The score was ______ in the tough game when the music filled the air.

Jason Johnson, Pike Central Band director, said some audience members and cheerleaders started encouraging his band to ______ the playing field and perform for Martin County Cardinals. “I was ______, well, what should I do?” Johnson recalled. The score was 64-64.

The band members, though, seemed ______ to replace Martin County’s band. “It was the students who really stepped up and ______, “said Johnson, who ultimately ______ his concerns and decided, “Let’s just do it.”

As they started their first song, the Cardinals’ ______ skyrocketed (飞涨，猛涨). “We just wanted to ______ them in a time when they needed encouragement most.” said one band member.

______ the Cardinals secured a ______ in overtime. Players said the ______ from the band helped them come out on top. Now, the team is ______ for the state tournament, marking the school’s first time competing at that level in 40 years.

7 . I had been swimming for years but was ready to quit. My _________ reason was that I kept receiving “Honorable Mentions”, just because I showed up.

One day before a big swim meet, I decided to _________ the news to my grandma that I was _________ the swim team. When I told her, she said, “Baby, remember: Quitters never win and winners never quit.” I was _______   to say anything but “Yes, ma’am.”

The next day we arrived at the swim meet late, _________ my group. My coach _________ I swim with the older group. I knew she was _________ me in the race so our journey to the meet would not be wasted, and she had no expectations that I would _________ anything but eighth place as there weren’t nine _________.

As I was __________ the board, my grandmas words rang in my head. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath.

SPLASH! I swam harder than ever. After a little while, I was __________ to find that I had a half-body length ________ over others. However, they soon __________ the gap. Halfway through the race, the girl to my left almost ________ me. Right then, the powerful words __________ again in my ears. I __________ my arms and legs and used every last bit of __________ to swim the last 50 meters.

I made it! Narrow victory as it was, I did win my first real __________ that day. Everything felt like a dream as I stood on the winner’s __________. Back at home, I __________ replaced all the “Honorable Mentions” on my shelf.

8 . “Have you ever considered giving up during a race?” a runner asked me during the Geneva Marathon. We’d _________ and keeping going felt like walking through a marsh (沼泽). Even the appealing scenery along the way wasn’t enough to _________ our spirits.

“I can’t think of a single race when I haven’t!” I answered _________. The runner beside me looked a little relived. Encouraged, I went on to _________ a few of the weak moments I’d overcome to persuade her to _________. My biggest _________ came during the first half of the 56-mile Marathon in South Africa, I told her. Running it was a _________ dream, but when I found myself on a steep hill with painful blisters (水疱) between my toes after a(n) _________ decision to wear no socks.

“If I give up now, I’ll _________ myself six hours of pain,” I continued. In that moment, 1,000 km of __________ training and the thousands of pounds I’d spent on flights and accommodation didn’t __________ at all.

__________, someone at my running club had laughed at the idea of a slow runner like me entering the marathon like this, and recalling this inspired me to keep moving.

“I may not finish this race before the 12-hour __________, but I’m not going to give that man the chance to say, “I told you so”, I said. Soon afterwards, I buddied up with another __________, a six-hour chat __________ and we got each other to the finish with 17 minutes to spare.

9 . Photographers from China were among the top prize winners at the 14th Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, organized by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, in London.

Chinese photographers featured significantly and won _________ in three categories and one of the individual awards, with the most remarkable _________ being the young photographer award, jointly won by Yang Hanwen and Zhou Zezhen, both aged 14, for their _________: Andromeda Galaxy: The Neighbor.

The official awards news release described their picture as “a _________ photograph of one of the Milky Way’s closest and largest neighbors” that showed the lively _________ of a nearby galaxy, stars piercing (穿透) through the _________ and emphasized the wonder of the magnificent sight.

The image was _________ by Laszlo Francsics, one of this year’s judges. “It is an excellent sight _________   by young Chinese teenagers, who also demonstrate their extraordinary talent in _________ a deep-sky photo,” says Francsics.

Hanwen, one of the two Chinese winners, says, “I think this photo shows how __________ our nearest neighbor is.” “One of the main functions (功能) of the competition is to __________ more people to fall in love with astronomy by showing the beauty of the __________,” says Zezhen, the other teenager who won the award.

“The __________ for the competition is incredibly high,” says Ed Bloomer, an astronomer. “It was really satisfying to see how many competitors __________ themselves to capture unusual, rarely imaged or __________ events: There are some things you won’t have seen before, and even some things that won’t be seen again.”

10 . Donna Urquhart is an experienced runner. She ran 1,402 kilometers over the course of 28 days in Antarctica (南极洲), _______ the record for the longest-ever run in a polar region.

Urquhart spent 10 months training for the _______, turning to some unusual training methods. A company allowed her to run in a _______ storage unit where she ran in temperatures below zero. Besides, she ran along the beaches with uneven (凹凸不平的) surfaces that are like the _______ grounds in Antarctica. All those proved useful _______.

The difficulties that Urquhart faced in Antarctica were _______: taking in about 5,000 calories each day, _______ in a tent. Combined with the sound of _______ winds and the continent’s 24 hours of sunlight in the summer months, these were _______ favorable to a good night’s sleep. Urquhart would usually wear four layers of coats and keep ________ her own body temperature while running.

Urquhart launched the Run Antarctica aiming to encourage more women to ________ sport. Though still unsure about what her next running challenge will have, she has set a ________ of raising $1.5 million for charity.

“Confidence is a real issue for females,” says Urquhart. “And a sporting environment provides them with a great opportunity to ________ themselves.” This served as a huge ________ for her to take on a challenge that no other woman had attempted before. “It was actually showing that we can push our ________, and explore what seems impossible,” says Urquhart.