2 . Benefits of Sports

Doing sports is a physical, mental and social adventure. It’s a great way for children to take a break from studies and release extra energy. It also helps them lead fuller and happier lives as regular sports have proven beneficial to overall well-being.

The physical benefits of doing sports are probably the most obvious. Regardless of your fitness level when you start playing sports, you’ll notice an increase in your overall fitness once you’re involved.     1     Basketball players focus on strength training; football players work on speed while track athletes train through longer runs. The training process helps promote physical fitness and performances in competitions.

    2     Playing sports also contributes to mental health, helping to increase confidence and self-worth. A pat on the back, a high five from a teammate, or a handshake after a match really boosts a child’s confidence. Words of praise and encouragement from the coach, parents and other players raise self-worth.     3     So after a game, it’s a better idea to ask “Did you enjoy the game?” rather than “Did you win?”

Children who participate in sports might also benefit from the social aspect, feeling part of a group, building up responsibility and leadership.     4     Teamwork involves both being dependable as a teammate and learning to rely on your teammates to achieve a positive outcome. Teamwork breeds responsibility and challenges you to be responsible for your actions. Being part of a team gives you an opportunity to be a leader.

Discipline is another social advantage. Most organized sports require a strict training and practice schedule. As a student-athlete, you need to balance studies and athletics.     5    

There is no shortage of reasons to find a sport to get involved in. Are you ready to go? Pick one and get moving!

3 . Five tips for safe running

We all know that exercise is good for our health. But some kinds of exercise may be better than others. Running, for example, may help to protect against heart disease and other health problems.

Running is good exercise, but it can be hard on the body.     1    

Take it easy. Do not run too much, too soon or too fast. Most people get running injuries (受伤) when they push themselves too bad. The body needs time to get used to increase in distance or speed.     2    

Listen to your body. Most running injuries do not come unexpectedly (意外地).     3    

They may include body aches, sore muscles (肌肉) and pain that does not go away.

    4     There is no single best shoe for every runner. You should find the shoe that offers the best fit and support for your feet. More importantly, you should replace your shoes every 500 to 800 kilometers.

Take good notes. Take time after each run to write down what you did and how you felt. Look for patterns, things that happen over again. These notes will help you find the best exercise for you.

Cross train. As we said earlier, running is hard on your body. So physical fitness experts suggest some form of cross training to improve muscle balance and to help you stay injury free. They say, besides running, swimming, yoga, and riding a bicycle are good exercises.     5    

4 . Last summer over 12,000 fans were at Wembley Arena in London, shouting and cheering. Thousands more were watching online.     1     It was eSports.

Millions of people in the UK play computer games for fun. Some of them have become professional gamers, playing games as their full-time job.     2     They practice for ten or more hours a day, five or six days a week. They do exercises like typing something and trying to type it faster and faster. They also study videos of other players and plan ways to defeat them.

    3     Are players athletes? Some say no. ESports players don’t need to run, jump, throw or do big physical action. At the moment, the UK government classifies eSports as kinds of games, not as sports.

But others say yes: eSports are sports. Players do need some physical skills, especially hand-eye coordination, reflexes, accuracy and timing. If darts, snooker and shooting are classified as sports, then perhaps eSports should be too.

    4     And they will be official medal sports in the Asian Games starting from 2022. Next step: the Olympics?

For many eSports fans and players, though, the most important thing is that eSports are growing in popularity and importance.     5    

5 . Why play sports? You might say “to get exercise” and you would be right. To have fun? That's true, too. But there's more.     1     According to the Women's Sports Foundation, girls who play sports get a lot more than just fit.

Girls who play sports do better in school. You might think that athletics will take up all your study time.     2     Exercise improves learning, memory, and concentration, which can give active girls an advantage in the classroom.

Girls who play sports learn teamwork and goal-setting skills.     3     When working with coaches, trainers , and teammates to win games and achieve goals, you're learning how to be successful. Those skills will serve you well at work and in family life.

Sports are good for a girl's health. In addition to being fit and keeping a healthy weight, girls who play sports are also less likely to smoke. And later in life, girls who exercise are less likely to get breast cancer or osteoporosis(骨质疏松症).

Playing sports improves self-confidence.     4     Why? It builds confidence when you know you can practice, improve, and achieve your goals. Sports are also a feel-good activity because they help girls get in shape, keep a healthy weight, and make new friends.

    5     Playing sports can reduce stress and help you feel a little happier. How? The brain chemicals leased during exercise improve a person's mood. Friends are another mood-lifter. And being in a team creates tight bonds between friends. It's good to know your teammates will support you-both on and off the field!

The wife-carrying World Championship has been celebrated in a small town in central Finland since 1992. In 1992, the people of the town decided to restart some long-forgotten traditions.     1     He was said to only accept men as members of his gang who proved their worth in challenges. At that time, it was also a common practice to steal women from neighboring villages.

    2     A large number of competitors, people, and journalists from Finland to Canada attend the Wife-carrying World Championship every year.

    3     The Wife-carrying World Championship is held on a 253.3 meters long official track. The track has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle, about a meter deep. The wife to be carried may be your own, or your neighbor’s. The minimum weight of the wife to be carried is 49 kg. If she is less than 49kg, the wife will be given a heavy bag to carry. Each time a competitor drops his wife, that couple will be fined 15 seconds.    4    

Alongside with the Wife-carrying World Championship, there is also a team competition. The distance is the same but three men in the team carry the wife in turns. At the exchange point the carrier has to drink official “wife-carrying drink.” Then he may continue the race.

    5    

While the Wife-carrying World Championship is being held, there are bands playing music, a wife carrying dance and other forms of entertainment.”

7 . Every person has time for exercise. The way is to take steps to include exercise convenient for your lifestyle. After I started getting into a habit of exercising, I was surprised by how much I could get done in a day, both physically and mentally. You can make exercise a part of your daily lifestyle.     1    

Start small

One of the reasons exercise programs fail is that we bite off more than we can chew. Instead of telling yourself you’re going to exercise today for an hour, tell yourself you’re going to exercise for five minutes.     2    

Break your exercise into parts.

No time for 30 minutes of exercise? No problem. Do three bouts (一回) of 10 minutes, or six bouts of five minutes each.    3     Just keep a running table of how many minutes you exercise each day to ensure you’re getting the minimum you desire.

    4    

Devices such as Fitbit activity trackers (跟踪系统) turn exercise into a game of sorts. Each day, you can measure how many steps you’ve taken. Many people find this attractive to their competitive spirits, and they and they take great pains to meet their goals. The technology is there, and it’s very affordable.

Exercise with someone else.

    5     You don’t want to let him or her down, even if you’re feeling like you’d rather not work out. Find someone and start moving. You’ll be able to inspire one another and celebrate your success.

8 . Staying fit and healthy plays an important role in our life. People sometimes ignore their health because of the busy daily schedules but there are some little things that you can do each day that will add to being healthy and fit. Here are some ways to stay fit and healthy.

Get regular check-ups. One should get a physical check-up every year to make sure everything is as it should be.     1    Getting physical examinations regularly benefits you because if and when something is wrong, you will get to know about it timely.

    2    One should walk for a few minutes every day to stay fit. It improves body awareness and can help reduce pressure. Exercise helps to strengthen the heart and lungs, strength training helps to strengthen the muscles and stretching helps to reduce the risk of injury.

Eat breakfast. One should have healthy breakfast as it keeps you energetic for the best mental and physical performance.     3    It also helps to keep a healthy weight because you are less likely to overwork later in the day.

Don’t skip lunch. We are trying to lose weight. We don’t have time and end up working through our lunch break. But try to eat a light lunch each day.

No late dinners. With our busy lives we always put off dinner until the last minute.     4     This will give your body a chance to “eat” most of the food before you rest for the next 8 hours.

    5    

9 . Why do you run? Different people have different reasons. Whatever your reason, there’s one thing we can be sure of: Running is much better injury-free. In his book, Dr. Jordan Metzl’s Running Strong, Metzl has the perfect suggestions for enjoying your running without losing your well-being. Here are five must-follow rules for injury-free running:

1. Train for your level of fitness and your goals.

    1     If you run for fitness and your goal is 30 minutes a day, that’s cool. But if you are just starting out, you need to get there slowly.

2. Wear the right shoes for your feet.

You will hear lots of opinions about whether running shoes really help prevent injury and whether you should even wear them.     2     And some of you may need a little added assistance from inserts （鞋垫）.

3.     3    .

Be honest about how much sleep you need and stick to it. The cool runner is the one who wins the race. Sleep will get you there.

4. Fuel （给提供能量） your body right for running and recovery.

    4     And after workout or race, you need to deliver nutrients （营养物）to all the body rebuilders in your muscles, so they can do their job and get you back into perfect shape for your run tomorrow.

5. Pay attention to pain.

When pain changes the way you run, stop running.     5     And use dynamic rest （动态休息）to stay in shape until you are back on your running feet.

10 . All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy and happy, and to live longer.     1    They buy tickets or turn on their TVs to watch the games. Often they get very excited when their player or team wins.

    2     Soccer, for example, has spread around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers. What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy!     3     So many people like to skate or ski in Japan, Norway or Canada.

Some sports or games go back thousands of years like the marathon. Chinese wushu, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Both of them are only about a hundred years old yet.         4     Water-skiing is one of the newest events in the family of sports.

People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game together they often become good friends.     5     One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace.