2 . Have you ever wondered how your favorite NBA team received its famous name? All NBA teams have an interesting story or a history behind their names. Some of the names reflected the city’s culture or history, others came from previous owners and many were selected through “Name the Team” contests.

For teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz, the names were not always a reflection of the city. Even though Los Angeles has no lakes, the Lakers name has been a city treasure for almost 40 years. Before going to Los Angeles, the team originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In1947, team officials changed the name to the Lakers to reflect the Minnesota State’s nickname, “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. The team name went unchanged after moving to Los Angeles in1960.

Because the Utah’s team originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was called the Jazz. In 1974, New Orleans club officials chose the name to represent the city for its reputation as the “Jazz Capital of the World”. The name stayed with the team even after they found a new home in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979.

The original owner of the Chicago Bulls, Richard Klein, named the team the Bulls. He picked the name because a fighting bull is relentless and never quits. Klein, who founded the club in 1966, believed these qualities were necessary for a championship team and hoped his Chicago athletes would live up to the team name. The Bulls, the winner of the six NBA championships, has definitely followed the belief.

In 1967, the Indiana Pacers selected their team name in a different way from most other teams. Their decision was based on what they wanted to achieve in the NBA. Team officials chose the Pacers name because the organization wanted to set the “pace” in professional basketball.

3 . The beach may seem like an inviting place to run on a cool summer morning, but is running on the sand good for your body? It can be, but it’s important to be aware of the challenges that some beach runners experience before you get ready.

Running on the beach can be a good thing. It’s certainly different from running on a track or a pavement. For starters, sand can be a challenge because it has an uneven(不平坦的) surface. As you push off, you’re going to lose some of your push as the sand moves. So, you’re not going to be able to push yourself forward as you would on a track or a pavement. But this unevenness has an upside: It gives your body an extra workout, forcing you to exercise muscles that don’t get as much use during runs on firm surfaces. For example, your feet, ankles and lower back might feel sorer and more tired than usual after a beach run just because the surface is constantly moving and changing step to step.

You also might feel sore afterward because beaches tend to slope (倾斜) down to the water. If you’re going for a long run on the beach, you might notice that one side of your body might feel sorer because you’re putting more pressure on it due to the slope.

Some beach runners prefer to run barefoot-- not wearing anything on feet. However, if you’re not used to barefoot running, start slowly and don’t run long distances at first. That’s because running barefoot uses more different muscles than running with shoes does, and it’s important to strengthen these muscles and adapt your feet. If you want to run barefoot and as long as you run carefully enough into it, go for it!

Running on the sand can be a smart choice for you, because running on softer ground surfaces can reduce muscle damage.

4 . 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!

5 . Teenagers’ fitness is now a major concern，and physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong，and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientist Dr. Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers：“First，you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier.”

Dr. Lopez suggests that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle.“Overweight”means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” means that the person does not join in many physical activities，but is not seriously overweight.“Active”refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities，but do not have a high fitness level.

According to Dr. Lopez，overweight teenagers should work out to keep healthy.“Ride a bike，play volleyball or basketball for a while，and go for a twenty­minute walk each day. All these will help to burn calories.”Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as push­ups and sit­ups, starting with twenty of each a day.“Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger，”Dr. Lopez said. The same rule applies to active teenagers.

Dr. Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise，together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities.“These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr. Lopez said. Some weight­training and other body­strengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the person’s strength.

6 . 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    

7 . Playing sports offers you more than just physical benefits (好处).     1     The benefits are the same whether or not you’re good at sports. If you are not good enough to play competitively on a school team, you can play sports with your friends.

Making new friends.

Playing sports enables you to create friendships you otherwise might not have formed.     2     You play together happily and gradually know each other. Many times, the friendships you create on the field remain strong when you are not playing sports.

Understanding the value of health.

Taking part in sports improves your health in many ways.     3     This gets you thinking about what to eat and how to treat your body so as to achieve the highest performance levels. Thus, playing sports can lead to better eating habits and prevent you from becoming too fat.

Building team spirit.

Sports provide children with the important lesson of learning how to work in a team.     4     By working together they will learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and will be better able to decide and work out the best plan for the team. This will without doubt help them in their future lives and jobs as well.

    5    

Playing sports requires a lot of time and energy. Some may think this would take students’ attention away from schoolwork. However, the opposite is true. Sports require memorization, repetition and learning — skills that are directly relevant (有关的) to schoolwork.

8 . 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    

10 . Physical education, 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 have 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.

High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.

The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. 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 (措施) 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 activities 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.