It was Dragonboat Day. Shiny white tents lined the waterfront,     1     (provide) shade and refreshments for Dragon Boat paddlers(桨手)from all over California,     2     gathered around the Castaic Lake for a festive competition.

Giggling kids raced cheerfully along the lakeside beach,     3     their parents enjoying the shady picnic areas under the trees along the shore. “It’s a great day out,” said Paul Lin, co-founder for Castaic’s own Dragon Eyes team.

Dragonboat racing has been going on for thousands of years in China,     4     (initial) in honor of the Chinese water dragon deity(神)in an effort to call down rain and avoid     5     (fortune) and disaster.

In the race, a drummer     6     (use) a large traditional wooden drum to keep the paddlers on beat, while a steersman in the back keeps them in their lane.

Lin said a friend got him    7     (involve) in dragon boat racing over a decade ago. In 2018, they decided to host their own festival. “There’s     8     really special to be learned from our dragon boat motto: ‘One Boat, One Beat ’,” he said. “Paddlers come from all walks of life and that kind of     9     (close) with people is nowhere else to be seen.”

“We really want to help expand awareness and grow the sport,” Lin said. “We’re hoping one day it’ll become     10     Olympic sport.”

3 . Playing tennis regularly could help keep people off death, but football, rugby and running may not help people to live longer, a study suggests.

A study followed more than 80,000 people for an average of nine years to find out if certain sports protected them against early death. It found that people who played racket sports regularly were the least likely to die over the study period, reducing their individual risk by 47 percent compared with people who did no exercise. Swimmers also reduced their chance of death by 28 percent, aerobics (有氧运动) fans by 27 percent and cyclists by 15 percent. Yet running appeared to have no impact at all on dying early, and neither did playing football or rugby.

Scientists say the difference may lie in the social aspect which goes alongside sports like tennis and squash (壁球), which often involve clubs and organized activities outside of the game. It means that people often have larger social net-works and tend to keep up activities into later life, both of which are proven to be good for health.

In contrast, people who play team sports often do not move onto a new sport once their teams break up for family, or injury reasons. They become watchers rather than participants in their chosen activity.

The researchers found that playing racket sports was associated with a 56 percent lower risk from heart death. Similarly, swimmers lowered their heart disease or stroke risk by 41 percent, and people who took part in activities like aerobics, dance or gymnastics lowered their risk by 36 percent. But again running, football and rugby had no significant impact on heart deaths.

However, other experts argue that this study must not be misinterpreted as showing that running and football do not protect against heart disease. In this study both runners and footballers had a lower rate of death from heart disease.