Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. My favourite player was LeBron James. Paul’s favourite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy     1     played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we actually agree that they are both champions.

Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the shortest ever player in the NBA. And guess what? Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! Paul knew that     2     (be) shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration, Paul once said, “if Bogues could make it, why not me?”

Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench, being just a replacement,     3     was really tough on him. Everyone knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn’t get a chance.

This week, The Lions were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team     4     record this season had been perfect. They hadn’t lost a single game. It would be a tough one. Paul didn’t know he’d soon get the chance that he’d been waiting     5    .

Figure skating(花样滑冰), as we know, got its start in the mid-19th century, when an American     1    (name) Jackson Haines combined dancing and skating for the first time. Americans did   not accept his technique, so he moved to Vienna, Austria,     2     he was an immediate success.

Figure skating became an Olympic sport before there were Winter Games. Events for pairs and singles first     3     (appear) at the London 1908 Summer Games. In singles, each skater performs a short routine(一套动作) of required steps, jumps, spins, and combinations, as well as a longer free-skating routine. The pairs event     4     (follow) the same format (形式), but with one male and one female     5     (perform) together.

Ice dance is performed by one male and one female, too. But     6     (like) pairs, ice dance does not include overhead lifts and jumps. An ice dance     7     (compete) is made up of two parts now: one is set to music which has a certain rhythm, and the other is set to whatever music the ice dancers choose.

A group of nine judges scores the quality of each figure skating performance,     8     only seven out of nine scores are used. Skaters are given a grade for each step, jump, spin, or any other element that is part of their routine. They also receive     9     "overall" score for each performance. The person or team with the     10     (high) total score is the winner.

4 . Sports can help us a lot. Taking exercises can make us strong. In collective sports like basketball, volleyball or football, we will learn the importance of cooperation. And sports can also help us relax after work or study.

However, as the saying goes, “there are two sides of everything.” Sometimes we may hurt other players or ourselves if we are not careful enough when participating in sports activities. What’s more, too much or hard practice can be bad for our health.

Sports can make us healthy both physically and psychologically. It is also a good way for people to know each other and can improve friendship between people. So long as we are careful enough, sports can do us nothing but good.

Tai Chi Chuan,     1     is famous as a kind of martial art, has been practiced China for centuries. It combines slow movements, deep breathing and thinking. Every movement in Tai Chi represents     2     important part of old Chinese philosophy—harmony.

Tai Chi is a term in the Chinese     3     (tradition)philosophy. It comes from The Book of Changes(《周易》). In the time of Song Dynasty, Zhou Dunyi     4     (write) the book Theory of the Tai Chi Pictures. The inventors of Tai Chi     5     (inspire)by this book and invented Tai Chi Chuan with the continuous movements of drawing circles in the air by     6     (guide) the breath with the willpower. They also absorbed the thoughts of the Taoist, such as the concept of Yin and Yang. Tai Chi provides the mental relaxation and physical     7     (fit).

Tai Chi is an unusual form of martial arts where we believe     8     building mental and physical strength. It is     9     (particular) different from western types of sports such as football where the harder and quicker are the better.

Today, Tai Chi is so popular in the west. Some health professionals have regarded Tai Chi as one of the     10     (benefit) forms of exercise.

8 . The M3 Challenge is a contest that gives high schoolers the chance to experience working as a team to deal with a practical problem within limited time. The challenge is meant to give high schoolers a sense of the kinds of problems faced by professional mathematicians working in the real world. Students who are gifted at coding (编程) might consider this competition since extra credit awards are available for teams who include outstanding code as part of their solution.

High school juniors and seniors from anywhere in the U. S. are welcome to participate in the M3 Challenge. Teams of students must consist of three to five people and at least one teacher-coach. Another cool thing? The M3 Challenge is. entirely online until the final round, and there are no participation fees !.

At the end of the M3 Challenge, six teams are identified and invited to present their work in New York City. The finalist teams are also eligible to receive cash awards, which are as follows:

◆ M3 Challenge Champions (Summa Cum Laude Team Prize) $ 20,000

◆ M3 Challenge Runner Up (Magna Cum Laude Team Prize) $ 15,000

◆ M3 Challenge Third Place (Cum Laude Team Prize) $ 10,000

◆ M3 Challenge Finalist (Meritorious Team Prize) $ 5,000 (3 teams)

In addition to these top prizes, there are also awards in the amount of $ 1,500 and $ 1,000 for semi-finalist and honorable mention teams respectively. Finally, Challenge finalists, semi-finalists, and honorable mention teams may be invited to submit applications for summer internships in STEM.

9 . Is It a Healthy Interest?

The Guinness Book of World Records describes Ranulph Fiennes as the world’s greatest living explorer. His journeys include the first polar circumnavigation (极地环行) and the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic continent on foot. So when he suffered a heart attack, it came as something of a surprise.

Exercise is highly beneficial as it reduces both the pulse (脉搏) rate and the blood pressure so reducing stress on the heart as it brings blood round the body. It also helps to keep the artery (动脉) walls more elastic (有弹性的).

But can you push yourself too much? On the subject of exercise, it is good to take several parts of “moderate” exercise a week，which is a little more than quick walking. “We need to be careful when we’re doing extreme sports,” says expert Len Almond. “Extreme stress can make almost impossible demands on the body’s ability to recover. The stress of extreme sports forces biochemical changes in the body, and the physical response to that kind of activity will be too extreme.”

We all know how the Olympics began. The man who ran 26 miles from the town of Marathon to Athens with news of a victory died as soon as he arrived，and the cause of his sudden death might be the heart attack. Further research was done by scientists. They studied cyclists (自行车运动员) on a race that covers 230km with a height change of 5,500m. They were interested in one particular enzyme (酶), high concentrations of which are found in those who have suffered a heart attack. The scientists found that levels of this chemical increased in most of the cyclists who completed the race. The largest increases were seen in the fastest cyclists who had trained the hardest.

Most of us will never put our bodies to such extreme sports. But if, when you hear about someone like Fiennes，you ask whether exercise is worth it. I advise you to consider your own condition. Personally, I agree with the saying: “Run not to add years to your life but to add life to your years.”

10 . The idea that you can use humor, laughter, and play to make you healthier probably seems too simple to be true. However, it is really true and simple. The sense of humor, laughter and play plays an important part in keeping you healthy.

Treat the blues with a sense of humor, which is closely tied to laughter. Laughter is infectious. Have you ever heard a big laugh of a young child and been able to keep yourself from smiling? When laughter is shared between people, it makes them closer to each other and increases their happiness. Smiling is the beginning of laughter and a smile is also just as infectious as laughter is. You can experience something by smiling at everyone around you, and you will feel happier just by sharing a smile, even with a stranger.

Play is an important part of making sure that we stay healthy. We are often encouraged to make sure our children play, and are told of the benefits of being out playing. However, what we often forget is that it is just as important for old people to make play be part of their life as it’s for children. Physical play is important for the old and it certainly helps prevent illness. While the studies are still in the early stages, the studies that have been done have shown that physical play certainly plays a part in preventing cognitive (认知的) falling.