My favorite school athlete

Many parents don’t know how much exercise their children need to do every day to stay     1     (health). The National Health Service guidance states that children     2     are aged from five to eighteen should do one hour of exercise every day, which about seventy percent of adults in the UK never mind. The research of 2,000 adults     3     (find) that only a quarter knew the exercise time recommended for young people.

The Youth Sport Trust leader, Ali Oliver said, “We have seen a drop in young people’s physical activity in recent     4     (year).” It is often     5     (report) that pupils are taken out of PE lessons to prepare for exams.

Meanwhile, figures from Sport England show only 17.5% of children are doing sports continuously. There is also a     6     (differ) among children from various economic (经济) backgrounds, with 39% of those from poor families doing     7     (little) than thirty minutes of exercise a day, compared with 26% from rich families.

This week thousands of people will get together     8     (celebrate) National School Sport Week, with     9    aim of promoting (推进) the importance of exercise and bringing great benefit     10     young people.

4 . Every time Oksana Chusovitina competes in a gymnastics event, she catches the audience’s attention. The Hangzhou Asian Games proved no exception. When the 48-year-old Uzbek gymnast took part in the event on Monday, thousands of audiences cheered for “Qiu Ma”, which translates to “Mother Chusovitina”.

“I’m touched by Chusovitina’s story. She tried to save her son and just never gave up. She is beautiful both as an athlete and as a mother,” said Zhang Anqi, a Hangzhou local who attended the event.

After completing her competition, Chusovitina blew a kiss to the audience and formed a “heart” shape with her hands. “It is the love and support of the people that keep me going and give me the strength to achieve more,” Chusovitina said. “I am not very satisfied with my performance tonight. Actually, I was a little over-excited. I will increase the difficulty in the final,” she added.

Chusovitina has a storied history at the Asian Games, having won eight medals, including two golds in 2002. Her Olympic journey began in 1992, representing the former Soviet Union. She later stood for Uzbekistan. When Chusovitina’s son got a serious illness in 2002, she chose to take German citizenship (国籍) to compete at global events for a higher income and better medical treatment. She took her Uzbek citizenship in 2013 again.

Her heartfelt feeling, “I dare not grow old until you are well,” has moved many. After her son’s recovery, Chusovitina continued her gymnastics journey simply out of love for the sport. Though she announced her retirement after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she decided to return shortly after. “The biggest power is my desire. I want to perform. I love gymnastics, and it brings me great joy. I’m just doing what I love, so why should I stop?” Chusovitina said.

7 . I have grown up in a football-loving family. My dad played until _______ injury forced him out. My elder sister Stevie _______ with Crewe Alexandra Girls for a year or two as a left back (后卫), just like our hero Jamie Carragher．

I remember the exact moment when I told my dad I was _______ in doing what my big sister did. I was watching the game with him in the living room and it just came out: “It makes me _______ that I can’t be a footballer. “ He asked why not, and I answered, “Because I’m not a boy.”

He _______ responded by telling me that women’s football was “great” and that I could play if I wanted to. “Yeah, I suppose so,” I responded, “but no one _______ women’s football.” Looking back, I can see exactly why I felt like that.     

At school, there was an _______ rule that sports like rugby and football were for the boys. I’d never seen a women’s football match on TV and the only _______ athletes I’d heard of were in the Olympics.

Today, the England Lionesses (母狮队) will _______ Scotland in the World Cup, and people across the world will watch it. ________ women’s football has turned out to be one of FIFA’s investments, the majority of female players in top tiers are earning under what anyone would consider a fair ________，and only £ 24 million prize money was awarded to the women’s World Cup victors in ________ with £315 million to the men’s. That’s a ________ difference.

Maybe, the truth is: Investment is needed for female football to become more visible and become a(n) ________ respected game. It’ll mean talented, skillful female footballers being ________ by millions of homes and maybe, just maybe, a little girl believing that she can also be a Lioness one day.

10 . Health and fitness help a person live a good and healthy life. Often due to various pressures, we tend to ignore our health. This makes our body suffer and we will catch other diseases. It is the fitness level of our body that helps us fight these diseases.

Health and fitness are interrelated to each other. We need to be fit to have a healthy body.

Similarly, if we are healthy we shall naturally be attracted towards maintaining the fitness of our body. Health is the state of our body at a given time. We may not have any disease but still have a weak body, which is ready to be targeted by viruses. For instance, we may have a tendency to catch a cold easily. This does not definitely mean that we are not healthy. It means the fitness level is not in accordance with our age and the climatic conditions we live in.

It is important for everyone to devote some time to health and fitness. There are some activities which everyone should do in our life. For instance, we must exercise daily regardless of our age and working style. There are different levels of exercises for different age groups and we must do them according to our own health and age.

Additionally, it is important to relax our body. We should have at least six to eight hours of sleep every day. It helps in improving our immune(免疫) system and protects us against diseases. It also helps in keeping us calm and relaxes our mind. This, in turn, gives us new goals of health and fitness.