【推荐1】Yoga is an ancient physical and spiritual practice from India. The word “yoga” comes from Sanskrit (梵文) and means “to join” or “to unite”, symbolizing the union of body and mind. Today it is practised in various forms around the world and continues to grow in popularity. Recognizing its universal appeal, the United Nations declared June 2l as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 to raise awareness worldwide of the benefits of practising yoga.

Yoga is an invaluable gift from an ancient tradition. It’s not just about exercise but a way to discover the sense of combining yourself with nature and the world. There is no written record of who invented yoga. Yoga practitioners (从业者) passed down the practising ways to their students. The earliest written record of yoga is generally believed to have been written by Patanjali, an Indian master who lived somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago.

Various yoga types give you many choices. Hatha yoga is the most widely practised type and is perfect for beginners. It is gentle with slow and smooth movements. Kundalini yoga includes a singing-part besides body and mental control. Bikram yoga is practised in a heated room. It is to relax muscles and to sweat to clean the body and remove disease and pain. Ashtanga yoga is taught as a difficult workout where you move quickly from one movement to another to build strength and patience.

In recent years, the World Health Organization has asked countries to help their citizens reduce physical inactivity, which is among the top ten leading causes of death worldwide, and a key risk factor for non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and diabetes (糖尿病). Yoga is a proper exercise. It is known for its ability to ease stress and anxiety. It may also help reduce several risk factors for heart diseases and improve a better sleep.

【推荐2】Ida Keeling’s daughter, Cheryl, a lifelong athlete, thought that maybe what would pull her mother out from under her dark cloud was something that would get her pumping again. She suggested a run. Not just a jog around the block, but an official run. At the time, Ida Keeling was 67.

Keeling had grown up poor in Harlem, and had done hard work in factories. She had lost her husband early to a heart attack, and two of her four children—both of her sons— died in unsolved drug-related incidents in 1978 and 1981.

Keeling had sunk into a deep depression (消沉), and her health had begun to slide. Her daughters began to worry that they soon might be losing their mother as well.

It had been decades since Keeling had done any running, and she would later recall that first “mini-run” feeling as if it would never end. But when it did, “I just threw off all my bad memories.”

She hasn’t stopped running since, and it’s no longer the tough work it was during that first meet. Since then, the small Keeling has set records for 60 meters in the 95-to-99 age group, and in 100 meters for the over-100 group.

“I was just exercising,” she says regarding that first run, “and now I'm all over the world.”

When she’s not running, she’s working out. She’s in the gym three to four days a week, running on tread-mills (跑步机), working out with weights and pedaling on the exercise bike, and even squeezing in some squats (深蹲) while she’s cooking. Part of her healthy diet is occasional brandy wine mixed with her coffee or water to aid circulation (血液循环).

She’s written a book about her experiences, titled Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race Against Time. Her philosophy is also suitable for a runner: “Every day is another day forward.”

【推荐3】I’m a hiker- ”born to hike,“ as my husband likes to joke. It does my heart and soul good to take a pack and head out on a trail, especially when I’m alone and can let my mind wander where it will. The experience of hiking is unique, research suggests, conveying benefits beyond what you receive from typical exercise.     1    

Hiking can help to keep us calm and happy.     2     But what sets hiking apart from other forms of exercise is that hiking can happen almost anywhere and give you that dose of nature you need to stay happy.

    3     Being a professional writer, I sometimes have trouble taking the time to hike in the middle of my workday. But research suggests that hiking doesn’t just feel good, it might also keep my brain in top shape.

Hiking can increase our creativity. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding that walks in nature let my mind wander freely in creative directions.     4     Studies have found connections between creative thinking and nature experiences, too.

Hiking can help strengthen a positive relationship with the natural world. Besides being good for us, hiking may also help the world around us. After all, if we can walk and cover longer distances, we could use cars less and reduce our carbon footprint.     5     It increases our connection to nature. Developing a positive relationship with the natural world can help us to care about its fate, making us more committed to conservation efforts.

【推荐1】Medha Gupta sometimes felt worried about making the 20-minute walk from the corner where the school bus dropped her off to her home in Herndon,Va.—especially during the colder months in winter.

Her mother, Divya Gupta had a suggestion: write an app. She was half-kidding, but Medha didn’t take the challenge lightly.So she set out to work.

The result was Safe Travel, an app designed by Medha to help walkers feel more secure when they are travelling alone. Using the iPhone, a person can program it to send a warning to someone he or she trusts if he or she fails to arrive at a destination within a certain time.

It was the first iOS app that Medha had created. While she didn’t think much would come from the project, her effort caught the eye of judges for the annual Congressional App Challenge,who selected her as the winner for Virginia’s 10th District.

The App Challenge is designed to encourage students to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math by experimenting with coding and computer science.Winning students are invited to attend a reception on Capitol Hill in April and also received $250 in Amazon Web Service credits.

Medha said it took her about 40 hours to design, program and test the app.As for her next app? Medha’s not certain. She temporarily has her app-development ambitions on hold because she’s busy teaching herself artificial intelligence to help deal with improper words on social media platforms.Yes,she knows that there are teams of engineers probably doing the same thing.But she figures it can’t hurt her own part,too.

“If we see something wrong with the world,we should do something about it,” she said.“After all,the only one stopping us from doing something is ourselves.”

【推荐3】The Polish take great pride in their culture. Our culture has many different customs and traditions. I will discuss three of these traditions and customs.

The Polish will say “Dziekuje” (“thank you”) only after receiving their change. What I mean by this is that when you are in Poland, you should wait to say “thank you” until after you have been given your change back. If you do not, you are telling cashiers (收银员) that they can “keep the change.” Often, people visiting Poland will feel that things are very expensive, until they learn that they are giving the store clerk permission to keep the money that would have been given back.

Polish people break “bread” with their families during their Christmas Eve meal. The Christmas Eve celebration starts with the breaking of the Oplatek, which is a thin piece of “bread”. In my family, the eldest in the family (my grandfather) takes the big Oplatek and breaks it into large pieces that he then hands down to each of his four children (my aunt, uncles, and father). Then, these family members break their pieces into smaller sizes and pass them out to their own children. Once the last piece is passed down to the youngest, we say a prayer (做祷告) and eat the piece of thin bread.

Polish people celebrate “Imieniny”, or Name’s Day. This day is more important than one’s birthday. They often name their children after a saint (圣徒) whose day is closest to the date that they were born on. Then their saint’s day that they were named after becomes their “new” birthday. On Name’s Day, families and friends gather together and enjoy a variety of food, drinking, and dancing.

As you can see, Poland has a few very unique (独特的) traditions and customs. I honor my Polish culture and will pass it on to my own children because it is important to know one’s own culture.

【推荐1】With the approaching of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, more and more people want to know more about it. If you are just one of them, you can obtain more information with a click.

Having won the bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games on July 31, 2015, Beijing is set to become the first city in the world to have hosted both the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games.

With a vision of “Joyful Rendezvous upon Pure Ice and Snow”, Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games will build on the legacies of the landmark Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and expects to encourage millions of people across China to embrace winter sports.

The 109 events in seven Olympic winter sports will be held in the three competition zones of central Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

Three Competition Zones

Beijing will host all the ice events (curling, ice hockey and skating) and four snow events, making full use of the legacy venues of Beijing 2008 in the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020.

Yanqing, a suburban district of Beijing (80km to the northwest) and home to the famous Badaling and Juyongguan stretches of the Great Wall, is to host the alpine skiing and sliding events.

Zhangjiakou, further to the northwest in the neighboring Hebei province, will host all the other snow events in its Chongli district, a popular skiing destination.

Seven new events

The addition of seven new events—women’s monobob, freestyle skiing big air (men’s and women’s) and mixed team events in short track speed skating team relay, ski jumping. Freestyle skiing aerials and snowboard cross-to Beijing 2022’s sports programme will bring about the most gender-balanced Winter Olympic Games to date, with more female athletes (45.44 percent) and women’s events than at any previous Games.

Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)

2022 Olympic Winter Games will take place in February 2022, coinciding with the Chinese New Year, the most important holiday in China. Or rather, it will fall on 4th, February and will end on 20th,February. Local residents are looking forward to welcoming athletes from around the globe to enjoy the Chinese New Year festivities, the majestic landscape and the rich cultures of central Beijing Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, as they charm the world with the beauty of winter sports.