4 . Thrown from his horse three times and repeatedly got wet to the skin while camping in a heavy rain, Chris Walker, the farmer from Gloucestershire was, at 55, the oldest of the competitors in this year’s 1,000 km race across the steppe (大草原). Despite the hardships of his eight-day journey, Walker was delighted to finish third in the annual contest.

The Mongol Derby, described as the world’s toughest horse-riding endurance race, began in 2009 as an annual event. Competitors race between checkpoints 35 km (22 miles) apart, where they change horses to ensure the animals are healthy. They spend nights at one of 28 stations, set up their own camp or enjoy the warm welcome of friendly Mongolian families.

Walker, was an hour ahead of his competitors as the race entered its eighth day but unfortunately he faced an hour and a half penalty because during one of the regular checks his horse had a high heart rate, which is forbidden during the contest.

Walker said he had gone to Mongolia to “give it a go” but realised that he stood a chance of winning after teaming up with Patrick Heffron, a competitor from Ireland, who finished third equal alongside his companion.

“The horses are quite wild. I got thrown off three times. I fell off in a marmot (土拨鼠) hole,” he said. “You’re going along and you suddenly disappear. You have to hang on to your horse for dear life or it goes off.”

Walker said it was important to form a team, mainly because falling off alone means that there was no one to help you with your horse. “Neither of us had prior desires to win this race but we realised: ‘We’re in front.’ So we pushed,” he said.

Asked whether he was attracted to return to see if he could win, Walker replied: “Probably, though I’m getting a bit old.”

Bungee jumping originated with an ancient adult initiation ceremony on the Pentecost Islands in Vanuatu,    1    young men jumped off    2    high platform with vines (葡萄藤) attached to their feet as a test of their courage and passage into manhood.

    3    (inspire) by this, three men in England staged the first modern bungee jumps off a bridge in Bristol in 1979. This led to a number of people    4    (make) bungee jumps for TV shows or as a way    5    (show) off their skills, often off    6    (extreme) famous structures such as the Eiffel Tower. One of these men, Alan John Hackett, opened up the first    7    (commerce) bungee jumping site at the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge in New Zealand.

Since then Hackett    8    (open) up a large number of other bungee jumping    9    (site) around the world and is perhaps the single person most responsible    10    making bungee jumping a safe and popular adventure sport. Through Hackett’s efforts, New Zealand has now become a center for adventure sports tourism, and people still travel from around the world to bungee jump at Kawarau Gorge.

6 . After figure skaters finish their programs, adoring fans often throw gifts onto the ice. There have definitely been some strange ones over the years. Sasha Cohen was once given sweaters and Debi Thomas even got a box of pizza after her performance at the 1987 world championships.

Apart from cards and clothing, the gifts are mostly stuffed animals（毛绒玩具）. Though it’s not clear exactly how or when this custom began, there are a couple of factors that help explain why they’re so popular rather than flowers. One factor is that flowers, once the go-to item to throw at skaters, are messy. The “sweepers” — the kids who skate around collecting all the gifts between each program — have a much easier time picking up stuffed animals than clear up every petal（花瓣）and leaf falling off its flower.

There’s no global ban on throwing bunches of flowers, but organizations made attempts to discourage the practice in the past. In 1989, US Figure Skating banned arenas(竞技场) hosting national championships from selling flowers. And at the 2002 national championships, the association publicly prevented fans from bringing flowers to the arena at all.

“Flowers have always been a problem. Even when they’re wrapped, some parts stick out and become a headache.” Larry Kriwanek, chairman of the event’s organizing committee, told us. “Flowers were going to be eliminated. It was just a question of when.” Instead, fans could buy stuffed animals inside the arena and shower their favorite skaters with those.

Stuffed animals also give supporters an opportunity to choose presents that seem more personal. “We sometimes will get stuffed animals in custom-made costumes to match what we’re wearing.” American ice dancer Meryl Davis, who won gold with partner Charlie White in 2014, told us. It turns out that skaters often do take especially meaningful gifts home with them.

8 . Researchers from Singapore said in their new study that in older adults, doing housework was tied to a better memory and attention span, and stronger legs, which helps prevent falls. Shiou-Liang Wee, a researcher said, “Housework is a purposeful activity performed by many older adults and represents a significant share of their self-reported physical activity.”   

For the study, Wee’s team investigated nearly 500 healthy Singaporeans between 21 and 90 years of age. Among younger participants, 36% said they engaged in enough physical activity to meet the goal researchers set as beneficial, as did 48% of older participants. But 61% of younger and 66% of older participants met this target only through housework, the study revealed.

After taking other types of regular physical activity into consideration, the researchers found that housework was tied with sharper mental abilities and better physical capacity, but only among the older participants. Scores on tests of mental ability were as much as 8% higher among those who did lots of housework, compared with those who did little, Lee’s team found.

And among older participants, balance and the time it took to stand up from sitting, which the investigators used as an indication of physical ability, were better for those who did lots of housework than for those who didn’t.

Dr. Maria Carney, chief of geriatric (老年病的) medicine at Northwell Health, N.Y., noted that exercise benefits your brain, and housework is exercise that also involves mental activity and requires detailed thought processes to complete. Physical activity increases blood circulation to your muscles and your brain, which helps mental function. Housework can be an important part of your exercise routine. Carney said, “It’s a task you’ve got to plan for. You’ve got to use devices; you’ve got to use equipment. There’s planning involved, so there’s mental exercise along with physical exercise.”