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Age is Just a Number (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:07
  Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lowther and I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses
• 0:16
  a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
• 0:23
  matter where in the world they live. Wang Deshon walks proudly down a long
• 0:33
  runway as people watch. He is a model on a catwalk stage at a
• 0:39
  fashion show. Wang has a strong body and is full of confidence. But
• 0:45
  he's not like the other young fashion models. He is seventy nine years old.
• 0:55
  Many people may think that older people at the end of the lives cannot
• 1:00
  do much more. However, Wang Deshan is only one of many people who
• 1:07
  are achieving great things later in their lives. In fact, many people do
• 1:15
  not even start finding success until they are in their fifties, seventies, eighties,
• 1:23
  and even beyond. Today's Spotlight is on amazing older people showing how to
• 1:30
  be happy, healthy and successful in life. We start with more about Wang
• 1:38
  Deishan. My name is Wang Deshan, born and raised in Shenyang, China.
• 1:46
  Many people started noticing me after a catwalk fashion show. Some people call
• 1:53
  me hottest Grandpa. Some also said that I am an immediate Internet sensation.
• 2:00
  But you know what to prepare for this day. I have been getting ready
• 2:05
  for sixty years. Wang Deshon shared this in a video from Red Start Media.
• 2:13
  He says that he did not feel successful when he was young or even
• 2:17
  middle aged. In his twenties, he was a theater, actor and artist.
• 2:23
  He continued performing and worked in fashion, but at age forty nine,
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  he was very poor. At the age of fifty, he started exercising at
• 2:34
  the gym. When he was fifty seven, Wang started performing again. It
• 2:39
  was not until he was seventy nine that people heard about Wang. He shared
• 2:45
  his own dreams and encouragement for others. I am eighty this year, and
• 2:52
  I still have some life in me. I still have some dreams to achieve.
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  Believe me, there is a lot you can do even when you think
• 3:01
  it is too late. Be careful. You do not let age become your
• 3:07
  excuse for giving up. No one can keep you from success except yourself.
• 3:15
  When it is time to shine, be the brightest. My name is Ernestine
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  Shepherd. I am seventy seven years of age and I am a bodybuilder.
• 3:30
  I do the same thing day in and day out. I eat the same
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  thing day in and day out. I do it because I cannot tell anyone
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  to do anything if I am not doing it. The world's oldest female bodybuilder
• 3:54
  is Ernestine Shepherd. She started lifting weights when she was fifty six years old.
• 4:02
  She began exercising with her sister, then suddenly her sister died. After
• 4:12
  this, Shepherd stopped lifting weights. She did not want to do anything.
• 4:18
  Then she thought her sister would want her to continue. Shepherd began to exercise
• 4:27
  again. Now, at age eighty, she is still a bodybuilder. The
• 4:33
  Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Shepherd, but she is more than a bodybuilder.
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  She also teaches exercise classes in her city of Baltimore in the United States.
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  She teaches people in her community how to be healthy at any age.
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  Shepherd told Prevention Magazine the advice she gives to her classes not everybody wants to
• 5:00
  be a bodybuilder, not everybody wants to be a runner. But find what
• 5:09
  you like to do. I say to my older ladies and the men do
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  not forget. Age is nothing but a number. Younger people often feel a
• 5:25
  lot of pressure to be successful. They may already feel discouraged in their twenties.
• 5:32
  They feel they should achieve more. It can give young people hope to
• 5:39
  see older people have success later in life. These examples show that it is
• 5:46
  never too late. Older people have found success and joy in art, science,
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  exercise, and business. In twenty sixteen, collect Bully of France finished
• 6:00
  her PhD degree, the highest level of schooling. She worked on this degree
• 6:06
  for thirty years, but she did not give up her goal. Boulie was
• 6:13
  ninety one years old when the University de franche Comte awarded her PhD. As
• 6:21
  people age, their bodies and minds are not as strong, but it is
• 6:29
  possible to stay strong both mentally and physically. Many people reach goals in sports
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  and physical fitness when they are older. Hide Kichi Miyazaki of Japan started racing
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  at age ninety. He still runs the one hundred meter race. He is
• 6:53
  now one hundred and five years old. Mieko Nagaoka is also from Japan.
• 7:00
  She is the world's first one hundred year old to swim the one thousand,
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  five hundred meter race. Johanna Quas is a grandmother from Germany. She is
• 7:15
  also the oldest gymnast in the world. Many older people who practice sports begin
• 7:24
  them later in life, but Quas started gymnastics when she was very young.
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  Gymnasts are usually teenagers. They must be very strong, their bodies must bend
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  easily. Quas is now ninety two years old. She can still lift her
• 7:44
  whole body up with her arms. She told The Straits Times. My face
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  is old, but my heart is young. If you are fit, it
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  is easier to be in control of life. Maybe the day I stop doing
• 8:01
  gymnastics is the day I die. Do all these people have something in common?
• 8:09
  Well, they eat different diets, they enjoy doing different things. But
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  all the people in this program do have some things in common. They take
• 8:24
  care of themselves. They do what they enjoy doing. They are not afraid
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  to try new things, and they do not give up. As actor and
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  model Wang Deshun told The New York Times, one way to know if you
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  are old or not is to ask yourself, do you dare try something you
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  have never done before? Nature decides age, but you decide your state of
• 8:58
  mind. What is something you want to do when you are older? Are
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  you doing it? Now? Tell us what you think. You can leave
• 9:09
  a comment on our website or email us at radio at Radio English dot net.
• 9:16
  You can also comment on our Facebook page at Facebook dot com slash Spotlight
• 9:24
  Radio The writer of this program was Rena Dam The producer was Michio Ozaki.
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  The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All
• 9:37
  quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to
• 9:46
  this program again and read it on the internet at www dot Radio English dot
• 9:54
  net. This program is called Age is just number. Look out for our
• 10:01
  listening app in the Google play Store and in iTunes. We hope you can
• 10:07
  join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,