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.

Stephen turned and he couldn’t believe the man was Mike Gordon.

Stephen was surprised to hear such words from a two-time champion.

3 . To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Reader’s Digest, we’re relaunching our much-loved 100-Word-Story Competition with prizes of up to £1,000 to be won.

Our 100-Word-Story Competition is your chance to show the world your story-telling talents. There are three categories — one for adults and two for schools: one for children aged 12-18 and one for children under 12. Your stories should be new, unpublished, and exactly 100 words — not a single word shorter or longer! Multiple entries are allowed per person. We are unfortunately only able to consider UK based entries.

The editorial team will pick a shortlist of three in each category and post them online on 1st November 2022.

You can vote for your favourite, and the one with the most votes will get the top prize. Voting will close on 30th November 2022 and winners will be published in our December issue.

More details:

Complete the entry form below to enter. Include your full name, address, email and phone number when filling in the form.

 Prizes:

Adults category: the winner will receive £1,000 and a Serious Readers High Definition Floor or Table Light (value up to £399.99).

12–18s category: the winner will receive a £200 book voucher.

Under 12 category: the winner will receive £100 of book vouchers.

 Need some help with writing your story? Click here to check out our handy guide!

 Please keep an eye on our Twitter or Facebook for more up-to-date news.

China’s women’s basketball team won respect and encouragement from Chinese netizens for their sportsmanship     1     (display) in the gold-medal game against Team US in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup on Saturday, after finishing in second place.

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     2     (achieve) for a team with an average age of less than 26 years old. The Chinese team won six times in this year’s World Cup before Saturday’s final. The only defeat was that it     3     (lose) 63-77 to the US during the group stages.

When     4     (face) the world’s top-ranked Team USA, the reigning champions, the Chinese players showed a strong desire     5     (fight) until the end.     6    the Chinese players failed to conjure a miracle in the final, their progress is     7     (definite) worth being proud of. Cheryl Reeve, coach of Team USA,     8    claimed their fourth FIBA World Cup title in     9     row, said she saw the growth of their Chinese rivals. “This is a great time for the Chinese women’s national team. It’s a very, very good team,” she told the press conference.

After the game, the Chinese Basketball Association on Sina Weibo congratulated China’s women’s national basketball team     10    finishing runners up again after 28 years. It also expressed gratitude to every athlete, coach, and staff member in the team for their dedication.

8 . M-U-R-R-A-Y-A is the word that pushed Zaila Avant garde, 15, to victory in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The annual event took place in July, 2021, in Florida.

After correctly spelling Murraya, which is a type of flowering tree, Zaila became the first Black American contestant ever to win the national title. She is the second Black winner, after Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the bee in 1998.

Since 1925, the Scripps spelling bee has promoted literacy. Competing in the event helps students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies and develop self-confidence.

Zaila, who is from Harvey, Louisiana, put in a lot of work to become the top speller. She studied for two years. ”I worked with a tutor and studied some days up to seven hours,“ she said.

In addition to being an award-winning speller, Zaila enjoys juggling, playing basketball and inspiring other students. ”Whether I’m studying for spelling bees or playing basketball,“ she said, ”the main motivation for me is to inspire others.“

In the months following her spelling bee win, Zaila made several television appearances. She was also named the 2021 SportsKid of the Year by Sports Illustrated.

The rising star is not finished. She has big goals for the future. “I’d like to play basketball at Harvard, play in the WNBA, become a head coach in the WNBA, and work for NASA,” she said.

Zaila’s parents introduced her to basketball when she was a young child. After receiving a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records on her eighth birthday, she set her sights on becoming a record holder. “When I looked in the book,” she said, “I decided that I wanted to be in it.” Now, at the age of 15, Zaila holds three world records.

9 . 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.