四、文意選填（占 10 分）    In the Spartathlon, one of the world’s toughest ultra-marathons, runners run 245 km,about six marathons, within 36 hours. The runners start in Athens, and run all the way tohistorical Sparta.    The Spartathlon’s 56 goes back to 490 B.C., when Pheidippides, an Athenian,made the journey to Sparta to ask the Spartans for help in fighting the invading Persians.It is 57 that he reached Sparta on the day after he left Athens. In 1982, this story 58the interest of a British air-force officer and long-distance runner called John Foden, whowondered if it really was possible to run from Athens to Sparta and arrive the next day.With four other officers, Foden decided to 59 ; after a 36-hour slog they arrived inSparti, as the town is now called. That achievement inspired the organization of the firstSpartathlon a year later.The Spartathlon’s attraction has two sources.    The first is the difficulty of finishing it.The Spartathlon is not the most difficult race, but it combines lots of different tests. Thereis the heat of the Greek day, and then the 60 in temperatures when darkness falls.There are climbs: the route includes a series of ascents, among them a 1,200-metermountain pass in the dead of night. Above all, there is the 61 pressure of the clock.The second reason is that the idea of retracing Pheidippides’s footsteps still 62 many  participants. It feels like racing in history, passing through places where history began.    As finishers receive a laurel wreath and water from schoolgirls, many are 63with emotion. However, the 64 is fleeting. Within a few minutes, their joints andmuscles start to 65 : after the race, Sparti resembles the set of a zombie film asparticipants lumber slowly around on legs that will not bend. But the itch to do it all overagain soon appears. 
(A) plunge
(B) overjoyed
(C) heritage
(D) relentless
(E) euphoria (F) seize up(G) grips (H) sparked (I) fading (J) recorded (K) see for himself (L) expense
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