Stephen pushed his foot down hard on the gas pedal as he was on the racetrack. The roar of the engine was loud. Stephen loved the sound. At the speed he was going, audiences flashed by as fast as thoughts. “Nothing beats racing.” Stephen said to himself.
Stephen hadn’t come from a “racing family”, and he couldn’t afford a good racing car. But with the help of his uncle, who worked as a mechanic at the local repair shop, Stephen’s car was fast enough to compete.
Not far ahead was the race’s leader, Jack, whose car was so well equipped and stayed just out of Stephen’s reach. Both boys wanted to win. No other cars were close to the two leaders.
Stephen pressed harder on the gas, but his car was already at top speed. Jack’s car pulled away. Stephen had no choice but to fall behind him as they slowed to go into the next turn.
Stephen concentrated as he made a long right-hand turn, then accelerated onto the straightaway (直道) His foot pressed hard against the Pedal. Still, the engine on Jack’s car was too powerful, and Jack pulled away. Stephen wasn’t going to be satisfied with second place today. The winner would get tickets to the professional championship race-presented by two-time champion Mike Gordon.
On the last turn, Stephen drew directly behind Jack. He pulled beside Jack’s car. Their engine screamed. Then, as it had so many times before, Jack’s car pulled ahead.
The finish line was approaching them, closer, closer... The race was over. Stephen came in second. As he climbed out of the car, his vision blurred with tears. He remembered what other drivers had sometimes said, “Second place is just first loser.”
“Great work, kid!” said a man’s voice.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 开头已给出。
Paragraph 1:
Stephen turned and he couldn’t believe the man was Mike Gordon.
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Paragraph 2:
Stephen was surprised to hear such words from a two-time champion.
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2 . Benefits of Sports
Doing sports is a physical, mental and social adventure. It’s a great way for children to take a break from studies and release extra energy. It also helps them lead fuller and happier lives as regular sports have proven beneficial to overall well-being.
The physical benefits of doing sports are probably the most obvious. Regardless of your fitness level when you start playing sports, you’ll notice an increase in your overall fitness once you’re involved.
Children who participate in sports might also benefit from the social aspect, feeling part of a group, building up responsibility and leadership.
Discipline is another social advantage. Most organized sports require a strict training and practice schedule. As a student-athlete, you need to balance studies and athletics.
There is no shortage of reasons to find a sport to get involved in. Are you ready to go? Pick one and get moving!
A.It’s not just your body that benefits from sports. |
B.Therefore, playing sports is going to make you more fit. |
C.But remember, a child’s self-worth should not be distinguished by victory or loss. |
D.If you play group sports, you’ll be part of a team that takes direction from a coach. |
E.Nearly every sport requires physical activities and the competitive skills. |
F.Among these, learning how to function as part of a team is the most important advantage. |
G.Only with strict discipline can you be successful both in the classroom and in the sports field. |
China’s women’s basketball team won respect and encouragement from Chinese netizens for their sportsmanship
In Friday’s semi-final, China defeated host Australia 61-59 and entered the World Cup final for the second time in almost three decades. This is a significant
When
After the game, the Chinese Basketball Association on Sina Weibo congratulated China’s women’s national basketball team
4 . Many of us start exercising in the hope of losing unwanted pounds. Unquestionably, aiming to be more active is a good thing. But if the main reason is to lose weight, your resolution could very well come to nothing.
For starters, exercise is typically futile for weight loss. Take walking for example. A 150-pound person who walks for 30 minutes will burn, on average, around 140 calories. That’s equal to one can of soda — not exactly a great return on your investment of time and effort. It’s much easier just to skip the soda.
When exercise is added to a diet, the results are equally unimpressive. Researchers found that a combination of dieting and exercising brought no greater weight loss than dieting alone after six months. At 12 months, the diet-and-exercise combination showed an advantage, but it was slight — about 4 pounds.
In studies where exercise has produced meaningful weight loss, participants burned at least 400 to 500 calories per session on five or more days a week. To achieve that, a 150-pound person would need to walk a minimum of 90 minutes or run 30 minutes per day. In short, sessions need to go well beyond what most of us are willing or able to do. And even if we manage to make that much effort, our bodies often compensate (抵消) by eagerness for more food and slowing down metabolism (新陈代谢), effects that over time limit how many pounds we lose.
When exercise fails to meet our weight-loss expectations, we often stop working out. Perhaps the biggest problem with exercising to drop pounds is that it turns physical activity into punishment — a price we have to pay for a slimmer body. How many times have you heard someone say “I’ll need to do extra exercise” after eating too much? We treat exercise as a form of self-punishment for being “bad.” In this case, we’re unlikely to keep doing it for very long.
The conclusion is that we’re more likely to treat exercise positively and actually do it when we focus on our well-being rather than our weight.
1. What does the underlined word “futile” in paragraph 2 mean?A.Necessary. | B.Popular. | C.Dangerous. | D.Useless. |
A.You will burn 140 calories every day. |
B.You will lose 4 pounds in a month. |
C.You might have a higher metabolic rate. |
D.You might eat more than usual. |
A.They are unlikely to really enjoy it. |
B.They find it too challenging physically. |
C.They have difficulty resisting (抵抗) delicious food. |
D.They turn their attention to their well-being. |
A.How long should you exercise a day to lose weight? |
B.What are the best exercises for losing weight? |
C.Weight loss: why exercise is the wrong path |
D.Exercise and weight loss: a pair of brothers |
5 . COOL COLD SPORTS
The Winter Olympic Games are not just a chance for athletes to win medals and honour for their countries. Every four years, the Games also help audience to get to know more about winter sports from around the world. The Winter Olympics may not have the large crowds and huge stars of its Summer Games, but they share the same Olympic spirit.
Skiing
One of the most popular sports of the Winter Olympic Games is skiing. Skiers compete in the downhill and slalom (回转赛), and in the short and long cross-country ski races. Skiing was originally (最初) a sport played only in cold northern countries, but now athletes from all over the world compete in this sport, even those from countries without any snow!
Skating
Skaters compete with each other in speed races or in figure-skating events. The figure-skaters are generally considered to be the stars of the Winter Olympic Games. These ice princes and princesses are so graceful that it’s easy to forget that they are actually highly skilled athletes.
Skeleton (俯式冰橇)
The skeleton is one of the strangest named sports of the Olympics. The skeleton is named after the shape of the metal sleds (雪橇) used in the 1890s, when the sport first started. The skeleton is a downhill sled race, usually on ice. In the skeleton, a person lies on his or her stomach on the sled, with his or her head pointing downhill!
1. Why does the writer mention the Summer Games?A.To share the Olympic spirit. |
B.To make a comparison on size. |
C.To help audience learn more about sports. |
D.To introduce the Olympic Games completely. |
A.Senior and honorable. | B.Confident and attractive. |
C.Amazing and responsible. | D.Graceful and highly skilled. |
A.They all include downhill races. |
B.All the three are newly-developed. |
C.They are all typical games of Winter Olympics. |
D.All the athletes come from icy northern countries. |
French Prime Minister announced on March 14 that the country would be closing all the restaurants, cafes and clubs. But one runner, Elisha,
Last week, he ran the length of a marathon—on his 23—foot long balcony. And he did it in six hours and 48 minutes, a personal record nearly double
“My only pleasure is running, no matter what the time,” Elisha told CNN. He devoted his run to medical staff
Due to the short length of the balcony, he ran about 3,000 laps.
As in France, during the pandemic, many teachers in our school tried their best to run at home or on the rural path to
7 . As we age, even if we’re healthy, the heart just isn’t as efficient in processing oxygen as it used to be. In most people the first signs show up in their 50s or early 60s. And among people who don’t exercise, the changes can start even sooner.
“Think of a rubber band. In the beginning, it is flexible, but put it in a drawer for 20 years and it will become dry and easily broken,” says Dr. Ben Levine, a heart specialist at the University of Texas. That’s what happens to the heart. Fortunately for those in midlife, Levine is finding that even if you haven’t been an enthusiastic exerciser, getting in shape now may help improve your aging heart.
Levine and his research team selected volunteers aged between 45 and 64 who did not exercise much but were otherwise healthy. Participants were randomly divided into two groups. The first group participated in a program of nonaerobic (无氧) exercise—balance training and weight training—three times a week. The second group did high-intensity aerobic exercise under the guidance of a trainer for four or more days a week. After two years, the second group saw remarkable improvements in heart health.
“We took these 50-year-old hearts and turned the clock back to 30-or 35-year-old hearts,” says Levine. “And the reason they got so much stronger and fitter was that their hearts could now fill a lot better and pump (泵送) a lot more blood during exercise.” But the hearts of those who participated in less intense exercise didn’t change, he says.
“The sweet spot in life to start exercising, if you haven’t already, is in late middle age when the heart still has flexibility,” Levine says. “We put healthy 70-year-olds through a yearlong exercise training program, and nothing happened to them at all.”
Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, says Levine’s findings are a great start. But the study was small and needs to be repeated with far larger groups of people to determine exactly which aspects of an exercise routine make the biggest difference.
1. What does Levine want to explain by mentioning the rubber band?A.The right way of exercising. | B.The causes of a heart attack. |
C.The difficulty of keeping fit. | D.The aging process of the heart. |
A.Diet plan. | B.Professional background. |
C.Exercise type. | D.Previous physical condition. |
A.Middle-aged hearts get younger with aerobic exercise. |
B.High-intensity exercise is more suitable for the young. |
C.It is never too late for people to start taking exercise. |
D.The more exercise we do, the stronger our hearts get. |
A.Making use of the findings. | B.Interviewing the study participants. |
C.Conducting further research. | D.Clarifying the purpose of the study. |
8 . A woman who lost one leg in a traffic accident is seeking to break a world record by completing 102 marathon-length runs in 102 days. A marathon is a race that goes 42 kilometers.
Jacky Hunt-Broersma, who lives in the Western American state of Arizona, set her goal last month. And every day since then, she has been running the distance of a marathon. Most of the time, she runs on roads and trails near her home. Sometimes she completes her runs on a running machine. If she keeps successfully completing marathon-length runs every day, she would reach her goal three months later. She would then hold the world record for completing 102 back-to-back marathon runs.
The current world record of 101 marathons was set on April 10 by British runner Kate Jayden. The 35-year-old Jayden does not have a disability.
Hunt-Broersma said that until five years ago, she was not very active. But then she looked into running and decided to give it a try. The sport ended up being quite costly. Currently, she runs on a prosthetic (假体的) leg made out of a strong, light material known as carbon fiber. The carbon fiber blade she uses, which is designed specifically for running, costs about$10,000.But Hunt-Broersma says her investment (投资) has been well worth it.
One of her recent runs was the world-famous Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts. She finished that race, held on April 18, with a time of 5 hours and 5 minutes.
Hunt-Broersma’s main support team is her husband and their two young children. She is posting her progress online and has also gained a large social media following. As she nears the end of her goal, Hunt-Broersma is hoping to inspire a dream in others, regardless of (不管) their own physical limitations. She tells people, “You’re stronger than you think-and you’re capable of so much more.”
1. What is Hunt-Broersma’s goal mentioned in the text?A.To make her body stronger. | B.To show off her great power. |
C.To set a new world record. | D.To prove she can live a normal life. |
A.Trying hard to earn money for her game. | B.Training strictly for a famous marathon race. |
C.Running together with a British marathon runner. | D.Running 42 kilometers either indoors or outdoors. |
A.Caring. | B.Determined. | C.Responsible. | D.Intelligent. |
A.Encouraging others to achieve their goals. | B.Having more people run the marathon race. |
C.Drawing more attention to the disabled. | D.Getting more people into her support team. |
9 . Leek Town Warriors was a girls’ football team Which used to get routinely defeated every time they turned out, until James Henry stepped in two years ago. He took the job when the previous coach quit and transformed the team’s fortunes.With the help of his assistant Andy Austin, they started training hard in April 2020.
Some players had never kicked a football before joining the team, so training them took hours of hard work and patience. After a good few weeks, they got down to training and really started to take it in what the coach wanted. “I insist on doing the basic stuff well and letting the girls decide what they feel they need to work on.” James said.
James’ first season was ruined by the pandemic, which forced him and Andy to get creative with training. They organized team-building activities with the girls to help them bond on and off the field. James then spent the sessions they could hold focusing on the basics of football like passing and shooting, bringing the girls up to a good standard.
James watched the girls develop over the course of last year, and in September they played their first match of the new season. They won the game, and since then went on an unbeaten run of eight games. The team’s star player, 15-year-old Chelsea, has also impressed the audience individually,becoming the top scorer in the league with incredible 30 goals.
James said, “All the effort that the girls, us coaches and parents have put in to get this point has been enormous. If I hadn’t had the Support of Andy helping me every week, this would have been an impossible task. So I’m incredibly grateful to have him on side. All we want is to bring more girls into the game and show that it’s not all about having the best players; it’s about hard work and giving everyone the chance to play.”
1. Why did James Henry take over the soccer team?A.Because he wanted to try his fortune. |
B.Because he wanted to turn things around. |
C.Because the previous coach recommended him. |
D.Because he hoped to fulfill his champion dream. |
A.Pick experienced players. |
B.Develop players’ patience. |
C.Lay stress on basic skills. |
D.Make decisions for the girls. |
A.They won the league championship. |
B.They stood out in James’ first season. |
C.They scored 30 goals in the season. |
D.They won regularly and secured promotion. |
A.Talent is the key. |
B.Joint efforts matter. |
C.Every dog has his day. |
D.Time and tide wait for no man. |
Hangzhou, the only candidate city of the 2022 Asian Games, won the bid on September 16th, 2015. Thus, it will be the third Chinese city
Hangzhou is a beautiful city
In the next few years, Hangzhou will try its best to prepare