2 . Top 4 Writing Contests of 2023

The Betty Award

As one of the few competitions for elementary and middle school students, The Betty Award grants (授了) cash prizes for written pieces below 1,000 words. The Betty Award has both a Spring &. Fall contest.

Top prize: $ 300

Entry fee: S 20

Deadline: April 30, 2023

100-Word Writing Contest

100 words or less per entry is a must. Submit as many entries as you’d like. All ages, genders, nationalities and writers are welcome. The theme is using humor as healing (治愈)。

Top prize: $ 800

Entry fee: $ 10

Deadline: May 13, 2023

Teen Writing Contest

The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 30th annual Teen Writing Contest in Winter 2023! Young adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6—8, Grades 98.10, and Grades 11812.

Top prize: $ 250

Additional prizes: 2nd/ $ 150; 3rd/ $75

Entry fee: FREE

Deadline: August 15, 2023

Bennington Young Writers Awards

Bennington College has a unique literary legacy (遗产), including 12 Pulitzer Prize winners, countless New York Times bestsellers, and two of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. In celebration of this legacy， Bennington launched the Young Writers Awards to promote excellence in writing at the high school level.

Top prize: $ 1,000

Additional prizes: 2nd/ $ 500; 3rd/ S 250

Entry fee: FREE

Deadline: September 10，2023

4 . Growing up in Conway, South Carolina, I was always athletic and competitive. One afternoon, my brother grabbed me in the yard, and I felt some kind of pop. About an hour later, I couldn’t get up from a chair. Over the weekend, my joints (关节) swelled up. My mother took me to the hospital. It took nearly six months to check what was wrong with me. Then I was put on treatment. But I had so much joint damage that I couldn’t run like I used to.

My dad was a serious golfer. One day he said, “Let’s try golf.” He carried me onto the course. Seeing him hit those good shots made me want to do it too.

It wasn’t easy at first, because I had a lot of pain in my hands. I’d played golf, but it had never really caught my interest — it was too quiet for me. But I was happy to be outside, to have a chance of competing again, and I fell in love with it.

Later I made the high school team, but I got frustrated when I didn’t win, so I worked harder. Golf was the most challenging game I’d ever played.

I got a golf scholarship to the University of South Carolina and turned professional after I graduated. I still take medication, and I’m stiff and in pain sometimes. But I’ve got used to that.

I probably wouldn’t be a professional athlete if I hadn’t got sick. The experience taught me patience, and I learned to take nothing for granted. I know how happy I am to do what I do.

7 . A new study has finally solved the problem of whether to eat breakfast before you exercise.

Researchers at the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Stirling analysed the energy consumption of 12 healthy physically active men between the ages of 20 and 26. Each of the men completed three different trials: eating a breakfast of rice and milk and then resting (no exercise), eating the same breakfast two hours before cycling for 60 minutes, and finally not eating breakfast completely before doing the same 60 minutes of exercise. The study showed that fasted exercise (禁食运动) is the best for weight loss.

“These results suggest that for healthy young men a short-term energy lack may be more easily got if breakfast is worked off before exercise,” the study’s authors concluded. Here’s how it works: when you work out on an empty stomach, your body doesn’t have ready energy from food so it draws from other sources, like stored body fat, which makes your exercise more effective at burning fat—and helping you lose weight.

Additionally, exercising in a fasted state keeps your insulin (胰岛素) levels low, allowing your body to produce more growth insulin which also burns fat. “When insulin is rising—as is the case after you eat—your body will be in a state of wanting to store fat, not burn it,” Phoenyx Austin, MD, a sports medicine specialist, explained to MindBodyGreen. “It doesn’t matter if you exercise like a mad man after a meal. You won’t be able to burn body fat until insulin levels drop, which can typically take two or three hours, if not longer.”

But if you prefer eating breakfast before you exercise, don’t worry—there are benefits to be there, too. For instance, the researchers found that the men who ate breakfast first burned more carbohydrates(碳水化合物) while they worked out and sped up their metabolism(新陈代谢) for later on in the day.

9 . You start by running around the school track three times to warm up. This is followed by exercises or long jump for the girls and football or basketball for the boys. That is an average 45 -minute PE class— but do you really enjoy it?

For students at the Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, sports classes have experienced a welcome change. Senior 2 students now learn the traditional Chinese martial art of sword-fighting (中国剑术), making PE the most popular lesson on the timetable. “The classes used to be boring as we just did the same things again and again,” said Xiao Tong. “But now PE classes are such fun. Sword-fighting is so cool.” His classmate Wei Jie agrees. “As well as being fun, we learn about traditional Chinese culture,” she said. The usual morning exercises performed to music on the school playground have been replaced by kicking and punching practice (搏击操) to a pop music by Zheng Xiuwen. “We didn't pay much attention when we heard the old music,” Xiao explained, “But when Zheng's music is played, we get excited.” Mao Min, the PE teacher who introduced the changes, is pleased that the students now enjoy sports lessons more. “The classes encourage healthy lifestyles and I am always looking for creative ways to keep the students active,” he said. Schools offer activities according to what sports facilities (设备) they have. For example, students at the Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University can choose to learn swimming, taekwondo (跆拳道) or volleyball. “I take my volleyball very seriously so I keep fit by playing it,” said Senior 2 student Zhang Zheng. “Students only try hard in sports that interest them.”

Walking, if you do it vigorously enough, is the overall best exercise for regular physical activity. It requires no equipment, everyone knows how to do it and it carries the     1     risk of injury. The human body is designed to walk. You can walk in parks or along a river or in your neighborhood. To get     2     benefit from walking, aim for 45 minutes a day, an average of five days a week.

Strength training is another important     3     of physical activity. Its purpose is to build and     4     bone and muscle mass, both of which shrink with age. In general, you will want to do strength training two or three days a week,     5     recovery days between sessions.

Finally, flexibility and balance training are     6     important as the body ages. Aches and pains are high on the list of complaints in old age. The result of constant muscle tension and stiffness of joints is     7     and simple flexibility training can     8     these by making muscles stronger and keeping joints lubricated. Some of this you can do whenever you stretch. If you watch dogs and cats, you’ll get an idea of how natural it is. The general     9     is simple: whenever the body has been in one position for a while, it is good to     10     stretch it in an opposite position.