1 . Physical education(体育), or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students receive physical education? The answer is certainly “Yes.”

Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all, doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.

The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity(肥胖症). The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.

Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activity each week improved their academic(学业的)performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.

2 . Taking pressure off sports competitions

Sports are a great way to have fun and stay active. Competitions can make sports more exciting. But because somebody wins and somebody loses competitions can also make kids be under pressure. A little pressure can be OK. But too much pressure is bad news.     1    

What is a competition?

There are different kinds of competition in sports.     2     For example, a swimmer might compete individually, but the person's score may also contribute to a teams score. What all sports competitions have in common is that all of the competitors want to win.     3    

Why do I feel under pressure?

Do you ever have “butterflies” in your stomach? It's that nervous feeling some people get when starting to attend a new school or preparing for a big soccer match. Believe it or not, the best player on your team gets nervous before a big game.     4     Feeling a little excited or nervous is OK, though. This helps your body and mind get ready to compete. But if you're getting so nervous that you aren't having much fun, it's time to figure out why.

How can I deal with pressure?

When you're competing in sports, you need a lot of energy.     5     Be sure to go to bed on time. And don't forget to eat well on game day. Try to attend all of your team's practices. By practicing, you'll improve your playing skills. The more prepared you are, the better you'll feel and the more fun you'll have.

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.

Most of us say we don't have time for exercise. However, many experts say that exercise plays an important role in making our body healthy.     1     (do) exercise can bring us many advantages. It can reduce weight and the risk of heart disease. Exercise also brings good effects mentally(精神上).It can make us feel     2    (relax)and happy. Actually, exercise can be done in many simple    3     (way). For example, we can take the stairs rather than the lift. Also we can play sports with friends in our free time.

When I was very young, I was rather thinly, so my mom started to teach me some forms of exercise. Beside, my father’s company used to have an extra building, what had 12 floors with different sports courts. I learn lots of sports there, included tennis, table tennis, basketball and so on. However, a most difficult of all for me was swimming. I didn’t like water, but I finally managed to overcoming my fear. I insisted on practicing every day. After about six months, I found that I could do easily. What’s more, I even won a prize in a competition two year ago. Now I’m strong than before and also know how to be brave.

9 . For the rest of March, a disease will sweep across the US. It will keep kids home from school.     1     Employees will suddenly lose their ability to concentrate.

The disease, known as “March Madness”, refers to the yearly 65-team US men’s college basketball tournament (锦标赛).     2     Teams compete against each other in a single- elimination (单局淘汰) tournament that eventually crowns a national champion.

Nearly 20 million Americans will find themselves prisoners of basketball festival madness. The fun comes partly from guessing the winners for every game. Friends compete against friends.     3     Colleagues against bosses.

Big—name schools are usually favored to advance into the tournament. But each year there are dark horses from little-known universities.

This adds to the madness. Watching a team from a school with 3,000 students beat a team from a school with 30,000, for many Americans, is an exciting experience. Two years ago, the little-known George Mason University was one of the final four teams. Many people had never even heard of the university before the tournament.

College basketball players are not paid, so the game is more about making a name for their university and themselves.     4     About $4 billion will be spent gambling (赌) on the event. According to Media Life magazine, the event will bring in $500 million in advertising income this year, topping the post-season income of every US professional league, including that of the NBA.