3 . Are you a writer who's attracted by food? If so, then this is the competition for you. The Week Junior is hosting the Young Food Writer of the Year 2022 competition, in partnership with the Guild of Food Writers. Set up in 2008, it is the only national food writing competition that is for children and young people up to the age of 18.

To be in with a chance of winning, write a short story around the theme of “Food and Heroes”. The hero could be anyone you want. Whoever it is, write about what role food plays in their life.

The competition is divided into three different age categories (分类), each with their own word limit.

·10 and under—250 words

·11 to 14—500 words

·15 to 18—750 words

There will be a winner and a runner-up in each category. Please include the word count at the end of your story.   When you've finished your story, send it by email to food and heroes@ theweekjunior. co. uk by 30 April.

WHAT YOU CAN WIN

·An invitation to the Guild of Food Writers Awards ceremony on 16 June, with a tea party beforehand where you can meet the judges. Travel for each winner, plus one parent or guardian.

·£ 100 book token (代币)

·A bundle (捆)of cookery books

·A visit to The Week Junior office

·A year’s subscription (订阅) to the magazine

·Your story featured in The Week Junior

In the countdown to the start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, ice and snow tourism has picked up in Chinese consumers. The Games     1     (expect) to fuel more opportunities for businesses as well. With the new snow season     2     (begin) in China, enthusiastic skiers and snowboarders have been eager to get back on the slopes (滑雪斜坡). One drag on the demand for some travel related     3     winter sports may be the small number of new cases of COVID-19 in some regions.

Previously, most people     4     went to ski slopes in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province     5     (be) locals. With major new development in the region aimed at serving skiers, those     6     (destination) have been attracting more tourists from other parts of China. The potential increase in the number of tourists from southern and eastern China is bound to give     7     boost to Beijing’s tourism market.

The Winter Games events, which have fueled the business of skiing equipment makers, will     8     (certain) generate greater public interest in ice and snow sports. In China, only 1% of the population has an interest in the skiing, far     9     (low) than the 35% in Switzerland, 9% in Japan and 8% in the United States. That indicates that the sport has significant room for further     10     (grow).

5 . A potato farmer, Cliff Young took part in a Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon (超级马拉松) race in1983. Coached by his mother who was 81 at the time, Cliff Young started the marathon with work shoes and work clothes.   

Competing against world-class marathon runners who were backed up by big sports companies and spent hundreds of hours preparing for the race, Cliff Young’s training method was just running after his sheep. He told the organizers he could run after his sheep for a few days and that he could surely compete with other runners.   

The ultramarathon generally took 5 days to compete and this potato farmer’s decision seemed suicidal. In fact, some tried to stop him from running the super-difficult race because they thought Cliff Young could die because of the heat and fatigue(疲劳). After all, he was 61 years old!

To cut the story short, Cliff Young managed to finish the race. While the young racers slept, he continued to race throughout the night. The young athletes left him far behind until the very last night where he finally led the marathon. Not only did Cliff Young, a 61-year-old potato farmer, survive the race, but he even managed to win the marathon and actually broke the race record by 9 hours! He even gave away his prize money to the rest of the runners after him.   

After the win, he continued to run in many ultramarathon races and even set standards in the world of endurance racing. His running style, named “The Young Shuffle” is a famous running technique used by many runners in the world today.   

Cliff Young showed that being old is not a problem, and being a champion doesn’t mean you need to have super-human strength, just super-human will!

6 . Two years ago, Beijing became the first city ever to hold both Summer and Winter Olympic Games after winning the 2022 Winter Olympics bid with co-host city Zhangjiakou, bringing snow and ice sports into public spotlight. Now, let’s take a look at some of the most popular events in the Winter Olympic Games.

Figure skating

Figure skating is one of the most popular sports at the Winter Olympics, in which ice skaters, singly or in pairs, perform freestyle movements of jumps, spins, lifts, and footwork in a graceful manner. The figure skating competition is one of the fiercest at the Winter Olympics — one slight error, and a competitor’s chance of a medal goes up in smoke. To win the game, the skater has to be flawless.

Curling

Curling is one of the most unique sports at the Winter Olympics — a winter sport played by two teams of four players on a rectangular sheet of ice. The two teams take turns to slide (滑动) large round flat stones towards a target. Members of each team use brooms to sweep the surface of the ice in the path of the stone to control its speed and direction.And while curling may be a “slow” sport, it’s still full of skill, suspense and excitement!

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a popular winter sport that involves sliding downhill on snow with a snowboard firmly attached to a rider's feet. The sport is said to have been inspired by surfing, skiing and skateboarding, as an alternative to alpine skiing (高山滑雪).While snowboarding is one of the newer events — first included at the 1998 Winter Olympics, it has become one of the most popular and exciting sports at the Winter Olympics.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey is a game between two teams who wear skates and compete on an ice rink (溜冰场). Each team usually has six players. The object is to push the puck (冰球) past a goal line and into a net guarded by a goalkeeper. Ice hockey is popular for its speed and frequent physical contact. Worldwide there are more than a million registered Ice hockey players performing regularly in leagues.

7 . Some people think that hosting international sports events is good for the country, while some people think it is bad. Discuss both views and state your opinion.

Along with the advancement of the globe and globalization, an increasing number of events are being held in various areas of the world to help connect countries, including sports competitions, and it causes a lot of opposite views. Some individuals believe that holding international sporting events benefits a country, while others believe that it has negative results.

On the one hand, there are a number of reasons why many residents think that hosting an international sporting event is detrimental. Firstly, there will be large gatherings of people, which makes governments have difficulty in controlling the crowd. Things against the law may happen because few people will notice, such as thieves stealing fans’ belongings. Furthermore, the brawls(吵架)might have occurred among too crazy supporters. Secondly, arranging a huge sports festival may cost a big amount of money, which can put a country under great pressure.

On the other hand, the host country might gain certain benefits. Above all, it will promote tourism. The large number of sports fans will allow the country to benefit from the costs of hotels, and other expenses resulting from the supporters during their visit to the host country. The host country also has the chance to improve the country’s image across the globe, which not only helps it attract a big number of foreign tourists, but also helps it strengthen its international dignity(尊严). Moreover, the fact that a country hosts international events attracts a great number of local audiences, whether or not they are sports fans, which will influence many people’s thinking, increasing their love and pride for their homeland.

In conclusion, I believe that organizing international sports will bring more benefits than harm to a country.

10 . In high school, my husband was placed last in both swimming and cross-country running. “At that time, I decided to check out the theater department,” he often jokes. More than a decade later, he’s active — he takes a long daily walk, and spends his workdays moving heavy camera equipment around movie sets — but not athletic. The closest he’s come to running is meeting me at the finish line of a 5K.

According to a new study, his experience is somewhat common. People who have low sports aptitude as children are less likely to be active as adults, according to a new research from the United Kingdom.

The study involved more than 12,000 UK residents that experts have been tracking since 1958. These people filled out forms at ages 33 and 50 about their physical activity habits. Experts from the UCL Institute of Child Health in London compared the midlife survey results to data from the participants’ childhoods to see what early-life factors make someone more or less likely to work out as an adult.

Of all the factors they studied, including things like social status and parental divorce, being bad at sports as a child had the greatest influence on inactivity as an adult. Low sports aptitude increased the likelihood of being inactive by about 50 percent. “To our knowledge, no other study has considered such a wide variety of early-life factors,” the study’s authors write.

The study also found that about 18 percent of people started exercising more between ages 33 and 50. That means if you want to start working out more, it’s never too late to start.

“If you’re new to physical activity, try to find something that you have found interesting,” says fitness manager Anita Golden. He suggests power walking or DVD workouts at home if exercising around other people makes you nervous. Jogging, hiking and bike riding are other good individual activities to try. If you like working out with other people but are worried about your coordination (协调), try group fitness classes that stick to simple moves and basic equipment, like indoor cycling.

“Don’t compare yourself to others — you are your only competition,” Golden stresses.