Billie Jean was always full of energy (精力)! One morning, Billie Jean’s friend Susan asked her: “Do you want to play tennis? You’ll love it!”

Tennis sounded exciting! That evening, Billie Jean asked her father, “What’s the best sport for a girl?”

Her dad had a think. “Tennis, of course!”

She felt excited. Maybe this “tennis” was the sport for her!

The next weekend, Susan took Billie Jean to the Virginia Country Club. It was a really great place!

There were beautiful gardens and ladies wearing white tennis dresses. She felt quite out of place in her baggy T-shirt and shorts!

But her nervousness disappeared when she got out onto the sunny tennis court (网球场). Susan handed her a strange thing that looked like a net.

“This is a racket (球拍). You hit a ball with it!”

Susan lobbed (发高球) a yellow ball at her. Billie Jean hit her racket as hard as she could. Her friend showed her how tennis should be played. They did their best to hit the ball over the net in the middle of the court. Billie Jean spent more time hitting the air than she did hitting the ball — but she loved playing tennis anyway!

Buying a racket was unaffordable for her family. From that day on, Billie Jean asked people in the neighborhood about any jobs she could do. Finally, Billie Jean bought a little wooden racket.

“Can we go to the Virginia Country Club to play?” she asked.

Her mom said, “We can’t afford it, love. What about the public courts at Houghton Park?”

Billie Jean quickly agreed! When she arrived at the park, she saw an old man waiting by the tennis court.

“I’m Clyde!” he said. “Do you want some tennis lessons?”

Billie Jean was worried. “Yes...but I don’t have any money.”

The man just smiled. “It’s free! Come on in!”

This was only the second time that Billie Jean had tried to play tennis.

Clyde said with a smile, “Billie Jean, with hard work, you can be a champion.”

3 . My favorite activity is playing, watching, reading, and really anything to do with basketball. A basketball court (球场) is where I feel most at home.

As I see it, it’s wildly popular in the US and its athletes are extremely recognizable, because it’s the one sport where an athlete’s face is not covered up by a football helmet (头盔) or baseball hat. My favorite time and place is anywhere and anytime. I prefer indoors, although it can be played outdoors. Many people often play in a driveway at home, but the best is always against someone on a court.

I started playing basketball because of my favorite player, Shaquille O’Neal. He was a huge, unstoppable player. When I was 11 years old, I decided to go outside to the family basketball hoop (球框) and take a shot (投球). This was my first time ever shooting a basketball. I will never forget the first shot I ever took. It was perfect. It felt amazing! And I’ve been in love with this sport ever since!

I learned a long time ago that very few people are going to have the love of this game that I do. I’ve always understood that in this area, for the most part, I am alone. Especially coming from the state of Texas, where football is king.

I’m not the best of players. When I do good things on court, I know it’s because I can make up for my lack (缺乏) of athleticism by being a student of the game. I’ve never missed a training day. I don’t worry about school, family, or problems. I think about what’s in front of me, and how I can get the basketball in the hoop.

Playing, watching, and reading about basketball fills me with a sense of enjoyment that I truly do feel that very few people can match.

5 . When Nigeria’s first-ever female taekwondo (跆拳道) Olympian Princess Dudu was fighting on the Olympic mat sat Athens 2004, five-year-old Elizabeth Anyanacho was enjoying one of her favourite movies at her home in Abuja.

She knows that the Olympics are not a joke, and she dreams of being a role model to other women. At 16, Anyanacho wanted to try out a sport. She began training with the track and field team at a local stadium in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

During one of her training courses, she was spotted by Chika Chukwumerije who was at the stadium to identify up-and-coming talent to train for taekwondo. “In 2015, I went to the stadium to find tall boys and girls. Her body structure fits the body of a taekwondo athlete. She had never done sport in her life,” said Chukwumerije, now the technical director at Nigerian Taekwondo. Chukwumerije, a three-time Olympian figured Anyanacho’s long legs would give her an edge over opponents (对手) when she is kicking from a distance.

“I was happy to give it a try,” said Anyanacho. “I was excited when I discovered taekwondo.” Anyanacho spent more time training and improving her skills. She was outstanding on the mat. In her first competition in 2017 held in neighbouring Ghana, she won gold. The national under-67kg champion has competed in 13 tournaments (联赛), winning eight of them and finishing twice in second and three times in third place. All these events formed part of the road that led her to Tokyo.

“Taekwondo has given me confidence, exposed me to different cultures and I have made friends from all over the world. I would not have had all these opportunities if it weren’t for taekwondo,” said Anyanacho. In addition to her Olympic goals, she hopes her rise can inspire more women.

7 . A small study out of Skidmore College examined the advantages of morning vs, evening exercise for both women and men. Paul, professor for health at Skidmore, led the study.

“We had the groups divided into evening and morning groups,” he says. “We found women and men answered differently to different types of exercise depending on the time of the day, which surprised us.”

The study showed that for women who want to lower blood pressure (血压), the risk of heart disease or reduce fat, morning exercise works best. Those women hoping for upper body muscle (肌肉) gains or mood (心情) improvement should consider evening exercise. For the men, the findings were somewhat different: Evening exercise lowers blood pressure, the risk of heart disease, and feelings of tiredness. But similar to women, they burn more fat with morning exercise.

“For many people, the best time to exercise will depend on their chronotype,” says Heisz, author of Move the Body, Heal the Mind.

“Chronotype is your body’s natural habit to sleep at a certain time—it’s what decides whether you’re a night owl or an early bird. For the 25% of the population that considers themselves a night owl, getting both enough sleep and enough exercise can be difficult,” adds Heisz.

He continues, “Sleep—which provides your body the necessary time to recover (恢复) and make gains from exercise—should always be the first choice. When it comes to exercise, regardless of research on the advantages of certain exercises at particular times of the day, your results will not be good if it doesn’t allow enough time for sleep.”

8 . On Oct. 11, hundreds of runners competed in a cross-country race in Minnesota. Melanie Bailey should have _________ the course earlier than she did. Her _________ came because she was carrying a _________ across the finish line.

As reported by a local newspaper, Bailey was more than two-thirds of the way through her _________ when a runner in front of her began crying in pain. She _________ to help her fellow runner, Danielle Lenoue. Bailey took her arm to see if she could walk forward with _________. She couldn’t. Bailey then _________ to let Lenoue climb onto her back and carried her all the way to the finish line, then another 300 feet to where Lenoue could get _________ attention.

Once there, Lenoue was _________ and later taken to a hospital, where she learned that she had serious injuries in one of her knees. She would have struggled with extreme __________ to make it to that aid checkpoint without Bailey’s help.

As for Bailey, she is more __________ about why her act is considered a big __________. “She was just crying. I couldn’t __________ her,” Bailey told the reporter. “I feel like I was just doing the right thing.”

Although the two young women were strangers before the __________, they’ve since become friends. Neither won the race, but the __________ of human kindness won the day.