1 . Columbia high school girls’ soccer team had lost every game in the season until a new ______stepped in two years ago.

Stuart Henley, a former soccer player and now a truck driver, ______the team and started training hard in February 2020. He ______the progress of the girls to team-building activities to help them bond on and off the field. He focused on the basics of football like passing, ______, and movement to try and bring the girls up to a good standard. His ______: coaches could give them guidelines, but girls ______what they felt they needed to work on.

Obviously, the girls were onto something big in the new season. They ______the skills they had learned and teamwork into their ______, which led them to an ______run of eight games, until they were sadly beaten 3-2 by Wyrley Pumas Team. Although this means they have been _____ the league title, the team have still exceeded (超出) expectation by earning the ______to the county’s top division.

“Whatever brings you down will ______make you stronger, especially for girls.” Captain Chelsea said, “Stuart has really ______our girls the philosophy of playing soccer. We’re going into next season full of confidence and ready to compete against tougher ______, but for now we’re still very much enjoying our ______.”

2 . The Olympics are full of inspirational stories. One of these ________ stories is of Derek Redmond. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Derek was making a second ________ to fulfill his Olympic dream. He had to ________ the 1988 Olympics in Seoul due to an injury to his foot. He had gone through multiple surgeries but was ________ at Barcelona and was ________ to win the 400-meter dash. He won the quarter- finals and moved on to the semi-finals.

He ________ the race well and ran for about 150 meters before his hamstring (腘绳肌腱) broke. He stopped and ________ in great pain. Medical attendants ran to ________ him but all became ________, as he waved them away and struggled to his feet, that he was going to ________ what he had trained for his whole life. No one seemed to ________ what to do—________ the race officials. As the entire stadium looked on, an old man ________ the track barriers and ran onto the ________.

The man was Derek’s father, Jim. He ran up beside Derek and put his arms around his son. Soon the crowd was on their feet. To their deafening applause, this great athlete ________ the finishing line.

3 . When Najla Imad Lafta, 14, plays table tennis, her torso turns as smoothly as a dancer’s to meet the ball and she returns it so fast.

She just _________ her fourth silver and her fourth bronze medal from an international sports tournament for _________ people in Egypt in June.

“In fourth grade, I was _________ I was different from the other girls,” said Najla as she sat in a narrow _________.

Najla was 3 when a bomb magnetically _________ beneath her father’s car went off. In a matter of seconds she _________ one of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis seriously _________ in the civil war that followed the American invasion in 2003. Civilians young and old were _________ in the crossfire, crippling (使残疾) them physically and _________.

Najla’s life had been turned upside down and could do nothing but try her best to __________ to her new life with the __________ of a wheelchair.

__________ at his daughter’s struggles, Mr. Lafta __________ a friend of his from the Iraq Paralympic team for help to give her daughter some training lessons.

Najla worked on her __________ for a couple of days at home - her family bought a playing table that took up almost all the space in one of the compound’s rooms - barely __________ enough space for her to play with her sisters.

The Paralympics committee recently bought prostheses for Najla, and these were far better than the ones she had before but they were still not the kind made for __________.

__________, Najla has made the __________ from playing in a wheelchair to standing: a remarkably rare progression in the sport, when most players do the opposite.

“To be honest, nothing compared to __________ legs and arms, but at least I am __________ with what I have done.”