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Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin
Lowther and I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses

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a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand no

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matter where in the world they live. Wang Deshon walks proudly down a long

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runway as people watch. He is
a model on a catwalk stage at a

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fashion show. Wang has a strong
body and is full of confidence. But

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he's not like the other young fashion
models. He is seventy nine years old.

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Many people may think that older people
at the end of the lives cannot

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do much more. However, Wang
Deshan is only one of many people who

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are achieving great things later in their
lives. In fact, many people do

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not even start finding success until they
are in their fifties, seventies, eighties,

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and even beyond. Today's Spotlight is
on amazing older people showing how to

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be happy, healthy and successful in
life. We start with more about Wang

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Deishan. My name is Wang Deshan, born and raised in Shenyang, China.

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Many people started noticing me after a
catwalk fashion show. Some people call

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me hottest Grandpa. Some also said
that I am an immediate Internet sensation.

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But you know what to prepare for
this day. I have been getting ready

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for sixty years. Wang Deshon shared
this in a video from Red Start Media.

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He says that he did not feel
successful when he was young or even

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middle aged. In his twenties,
he was a theater, actor and artist.

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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

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the gym. When he was fifty
seven, Wang started performing again. It

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was not until he was seventy nine
that people heard about Wang. He shared

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his own dreams and encouragement for others. I am eighty this year, and

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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

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it is too late. Be careful. You do not let age become your

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excuse for giving up. No one
can keep you from success except yourself.

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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.

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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

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is Ernestine Shepherd. She started lifting
weights when she was fifty six years old.

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She began exercising with her sister,
then suddenly her sister died. After

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this, Shepherd stopped lifting weights.
She did not want to do anything.

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Then she thought her sister would want
her to continue. Shepherd began to exercise

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again. Now, at age eighty, she is still a bodybuilder. The

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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

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be a bodybuilder, not everybody wants
to be a runner. But find what

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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

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lot of pressure to be successful.
They may already feel discouraged in their twenties.

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They feel they should achieve more.
It can give young people hope to

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see older people have success later in
life. These examples show that it is

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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

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her PhD degree, the highest level
of schooling. She worked on this degree

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for thirty years, but she did
not give up her goal. Boulie was

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ninety one years old when the University
de franche Comte awarded her PhD. As

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people age, their bodies and minds
are not as strong, but it is

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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

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now one hundred and five years old. Mieko Nagaoka is also from Japan.

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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

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also the oldest gymnast in the world. Many older people who practice sports begin

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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

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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

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gymnastics is the day I die.
Do all these people have something in common?

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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

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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

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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

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a comment on our website or email
us at radio at Radio English dot net.

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You can also comment on our Facebook
page at Facebook dot com slash Spotlight

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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

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quotes were adapted for this program and
voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to

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this program again and read it on
the internet at www dot Radio English dot

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net. This program is called Age
is just number. Look out for our

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listening app in the Google play Store
and in iTunes. We hope you can

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join us again for the next Spotlight
program. Goodbye,