1 . 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!

A．It’s not just your body that benefits from sports.

B．Therefore, playing sports is going to make you more fit.

C．But remember, a child’s self-worth should not be distinguished by victory or loss.

D．If you play group sports, you’ll be part of a team that takes direction from a coach.

E．Nearly every sport requires physical activities and the competitive skills.

F．Among these, learning how to function as part of a team is the most important advantage.

G．Only with strict discipline can you be successful both in the classroom and in the sports field.

2 . Nature soothes(抚慰)our stressed-out souls. We know that nature is the best prescription, and new research suggests we can gain benefits while visiting parks.

    1    The study published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research found that spending 20 minutes in a city park can make you happier, regardless of whether you use that time to exercise or not.

"In general,we found park visitors reported an improvement in emotional well-being(幸福感)after the park visit.”the study's lead author and University of Alabama at Birmingham professor Hon K. Yuen said in a statement.“    2    ”Instead, we found time spent in the park is related to improved emotional well-being.”

For the study, 94 adults visited three city parks in Mountain Brook, Alabama, completing a questionnaire about their subjective well-being before and after their visit.     3     A visit of between 20 and 25 minutes showed the best results, with a roughly 64% increase in the participants' self-reported well-being, even if they didn't move a great deal in the park.     4    

The study group was truly small. as the study's co-author and another UAB professor, Gavin Jenkins, acknowledges.     5    The challenge facing cities is that there is increasing evidence about the value of city parks but we continue to see the decrease of these spaces.

A．Something was used to track their physical activity.

B．You usually visit a small green space in your neighborhood.

C．However, its findings pointed out the importance of city parks.

D．If you want to feel happier, you just need to exercise for 20 minutes in a park.

E．The best part is that you needn't visit a national park or go far out of your way.

F．This means people can benefit from visiting a nearby park, regardless of physical ability.

G．But we didn't find levels of physical activity are linked to improved emotional well-being.

3 . The Moth Poetry Prize

ABOUT THE PRIZE

The Moth Poetry Prize is an annual contest from Irish magazine. It is one of the biggest prizes in the world for a single unpublished poem of any length with the theme of peace. The prize is open to anyone over 16 as long as the poem is previously unpublished，and each year it attracts thousands of entries from new and established poets from over 50 countries worldwide.

The shortlist will be announced in June 2019 and the four shortlisted poems will feature in the summer issue of The Moth. The winners will be invited to a special prize-giving event at Poetry Ireland in Dublin in the summer of 2019.

THE JUDGE

The poet and novelist Jacob Polley will judge this year’s Moth Poetry Prize. Jacob is the author of four poetry collections published by Picador，the latest of which，Jackself，won the T. S. Eliot Prize. He is also the recipient of a Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize，and his novel Talk of the Tovun won a Somerset Maugham Award. He teaches at the University of Newcastle.

HOW TO ENTER

The entry fee is 15 euros per poem, and you can enter as many poems as you like.

You can enter online or send your poem (s) along with a cheque or postal order made     payable to “The Moth Magazine Ltd. ” with an entry form or a cover letter with your name and contact details and the title of poem(s) attached to： The Moth，Ardan Grange, Milltown, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland.

Please remember to read the rules of the competition before you enter.

Call 00 353 (0)87 2657251 or email enquiries®themothmagazine. com for more details.

1. What information about the contest can we learn?

A．Its closing date.	B．Its evaluation criteria.
C．The award to winners.	D．Its organizer.

2. What is the requirement of the contest?

A．One person can only submit one entry.

B．The participants must be Irish citizens.

C．The entries should be focused on peace.

D．Only teenagers of 16 are admitted to take part.

3. What will the winners get?

A．An award of 15 euros.

B．An invitation to Dublin.

C．A poetry collection by Picador.

D．A chance to interview Jacob Polley.

4 . Sports can help us a lot. Taking exercises can make us strong. In collective(集体的) sports like basketball, volleyball or football, we will learn the importance of cooperation(合作). And sports can also help us relax after work or study.

However, as the saying goes, “there are two sides of everything.” Sometimes we may hurt other players or ourselves if we are not careful enough when participating(参加) in sports activities. What’s more, too much or hard practice can be bad for our health.

Sports can make us healthy both physically and psychologically(心理地). It is also a good way for people to know each other and can improve friendship between people. So long as we are careful enough, sports can do us nothing but good.

1.          can make us strong.

A．Sleeping	B．Singing
C．Making friends	D．Taking exercise

2. Too much exercise can be          for us.

A．good	B．enough
C．bad	D．helpful

3. Sports can         .

A．help people to know each other	B．improve friendship between people
C．do us nothing but good if we are careful	D．All of the above

4. Which of the following is NOT true?

A．Sports can help us relax after work or study.

B．Sports can only make us healthy physically.

C．Sometimes we may hurt other players or ourselves when participating in sports activities.

D．Basketball and volleyball are both collective sports.

5 . Experts like to say the best form of exercise is whatever kind you’ll actually do. But that may not always be the case; new research finds that people who combine exercise with their social lives may be at an advantage over solitary(独自) exercisers. Tennis, badminton and soccer are all better for longevity(长寿) than cycling, swimming, jogging or gym exercise, according to the research.

The study was based on data from about 8,500 adults who were part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study. They completed a health and lifestyle questionnaire, which included questions about type and frequency of physical activity, and were monitored by the researchers for around 25 years, a period during which about 4,500 of the subjects died.

Tennis came out on top in the research. Compared with people sitting all day, those who reported playing tennis as their main form of exercise could expect to add 9.7 years to their life time, followed by badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years), jogging (3.2 years) and health-club activities (1.5 years).

Tennis likely took the top spot because “it’s very interactive,” says study co-author Dr. James O’Keefe, a physician at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “At every point you’re talking. It’s just a very natural way to emotionally bond with people, besides getting your exercise.” But he adds that the study may not have been able to fully account for the fact that wealthier, better-educated people—who tend to be healthier to begin with—may be more likely to play tennis.

Activities like running and weight lifting still extend your life and offer plenty of other health benefits. But for the best possible benefits, O’Keefe says gym-goers may want to consider combining those workouts with activities that foster social connection.

O’Keefe, whose exercise typically includes running and weight lifting, says he’s even changed his own behavior because of the study: he and his family have taken up badminton.

“You can’t play badminton without feeling like a kid again,” he says. “It’s just pure fun.”

1. Which of the following is best for living a long life?

A．Cycling.	B．Badminton.
C．Swimming.	D．Gym exercise.

2. How many people were still living at the end of the research?

A．About 8,500.	B．About 4,500.
C．About 4000.	D．About 2500.

3. What matters most to the result of the research?

A．Family life.	B．Social connections.
C．Frequency of exercise.	D．Wealth and education.

4. What does O’Keefe do after the finding?

A．He puts the theory into practice.

B．He plays badminton just for fun.

C．He feels like playing badminton with kids.

D．He takes more exercise than before.

6 . Running is a great way to get in shape and just about everyone can do it. Given that it's so easy to take up the sport, a lot of beginners jump right into running without actually knowing what it takes to establish a healthy routine.

    1    . If you are just starting out, avoid the following things to help you increase your chances of running success.

Doing too much too soon

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is doing too much too soon. Picking up a new hobby like running is no doubt exciting. Runners need to ease into the sport before increasing the distance.    2    .

    3    

Beginners might think they need to run nearly every day to meet their fitness or weight-loss goals, but this couldn't be further from the truth.    4    ， especially for beginners whose muscles and bones haven't yet been conditioned for such intense (剧烈的) exercise. So it's important to give your body ample rest between workouts. Follow a training plan that includes rest days.

Comparing yourself to others

    5    , You're excited about running, so you are probably reading running blogs, magazines and message boards where you might start to feel inadequate about your own running pace. Instead of getting down on yourself， remember that every runner was once a beginner and use their success as motivation!

A．Not running every day

B．Not taking rest days

C．Running is a demanding activity which can be really hard on your body

D．As mentioned, a healthy routine is what they attach importance to

E．When starting out with running, it's tough not to compare yourself to others

F．Many make a number of common mistakes, which can interfere (干扰) with training or lead to injury

G．It will help reduce the risk of injury, so you can continue with your new running routine

7 . For the first time in 10 years, the United States government has changed its guidance on how much exercise people need to stay healthy and when they should start.

For children and teens

The new guidance states that the most important time for children to begin exercising is between the ages of 3 and 5.     1     That could be light activities, moderate activities, or even vigorous(剧烈的)activities.

Doctors say it is important to start young.They add that from birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more than at any other time in life.     2     Also, children who start exercising at a young age are more likely to establish healthy behaviors they will continue into adulthood.

But that does not mean putting a small kid on a treadmill(跑步机)or other exercise equipment.     3       After all, it's a kid’s nature to play freely and happily.

    4     But it shouldn’t be less than one hour a day three times a week.Their activities should mostly be aerobic(有氧的)exercise, such as biking, swimming or running, which can strengthen the heart and lungs.Such exercise should also include muscle-and-bone-strengthening activities；such as climbing trees or playground equipment and playing sports.

For adults

For adults, the guidelines recommend exercising 150 minutes a week. That could be walking, gardening, dancing, etc.    5     Experts say that even short amounts of aerobic exercise can provide health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, reducing anxiety and improving sleep.

A．Any kind of activity that gets people exercising will do.

B．Aerobic activity works only if it lasts for at least 10 minutes.

C．Simply giving a kid the time and space to play actively is enough.

D．Children above 5 can have a relatively shorter time for daily exercise.

E．Children in this age range require about three hours’ active activities daily.

F．Attaining the health benefits from exercise may be harder than earlier thought.

G．These developments have a 1asting effect on a child’s ability to succeed in life.

8 . A new urban sport, parkour, is hitting the streets. It has evolved from obstacle course training into a fitness option for young people. In parkour, the outside world is the gym!     1     The goal of parkour is a direct route from one place to another. You meet an obstacle, you overcome it.

Mark Toorock, who teaches the techniques of parkour at his fitness gym, says that parkour is a method to train the body and mind using obstacles as the medium. He says that this new sport is demanding and takes years to master.     2    

But Toorock, who used to be a martial arts expert, says that everyone can benefit from learning the basic skills involved in parkour like running, jumping and crawling (爬行). These are the things that humans used to have to do all the time.     3     The original idea of parkour was to return to running and jumping as basic elements in moving from one place to another.

Georges Hebert, a French navy officer, was so impressed by the effortless athleticism of African tribes that he devised a training method based on running, climbing, jumping, balancing and throwing. The word parkour comes from parcours de combatant, the French term for a military obstacle course.     4    

Dr Kenneth Kao explains that the sport of parkour is not extreme — it is the environment which is extreme and dangerous. Being outside, jumping off railings and flipping over park benches can be quite frightening, so parkour courses in gyms concentrate on practicing all the individual moves to make everything easier.     5     However, that is not real parkour because it’s indoors with a fixed obstacle. The goal for everyone is to go outdoors.

A．Gyms provide thick floor matting (垫子) for rolling and rubberized boxes for jumping over.

B．The bridges, buildings and railings (栏杆) of each and every city are the equipment.

C．Every action in parkour is natural, so everyone must have the ability to move in this way.

D．Parkour was introduced into china in recent years and has gained popularity.

E．But today, due to modern transport, these basic skills are no longer used on a regular basis.

F．The French word for people who participate in the sport is traceurs or traceuses.

G．Beginners should realize that they won’t be jumping over buildings any time soon!

9 . Last summer over 12,000 fans were at Wembley Arena in London, shouting and cheering. Thousands more were watching online.     1     It was e-sports, or competitive computer gaming.

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 beat them.

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

But others say yes: e-sports 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 e-sports should be too.

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

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

A．But are e-sports really sports?

B．All like playing computer games.

C．It’s not easy being a professional gamer, though.

D．But this wasn’t a football, basketball or tennis match.

E．It is certain that e-sports will come into the 2024 Olympics.

F．In fact, China and South Korea do classify e-sports as sports.

G．If e-sports are not as important as sports now, they definitely will be in the near future.

10 . The Damage that aging does to a body extends all the way down to the cellular level. But the damage increased by cells in older muscles is especially severe, because the cells do not reproduce easily and they become weaker as their mitochondria （线粒体）, which produce energy, reduce in energy and number. A study, however, suggests that certain sorts of exercise may remove some of what time can do to our mitochondria.

Exercise is good for people, as everyone knows. But scientists have surprisingly little understanding of its cellular impacts and how those might vary by activity and the age of the exerciser. So researchers recently conducted an experiment on the cells of 72 healthy but sedentary （久坐的） men and women who were 30 or younger or older than 64. After baseline measures were established for their aerobic （有氧的） fitness, their blood-sugar levels and the gene activity and mitochondrial health in their muscle cells, the volunteers were randomly assigned to a particular exercise program.

Some of them did intense （强烈的） weight training several times a week; some did brief interval training three times a week on exercise bicycles; some rode exercise bikes at an appropriate pace for 30 minutes a few times a week and lifted weights lightly on other days. A fourth group, the control （对照组）, did not exercise. After 12 weeks, the lab tests were repeated. In general, everyone experienced improvements in fitness and an ability to regulate blood sugar.

But more unexpected results were found in the biopsied （活组织检查） muscle cells. Among the younger subjects who went through interval training, the activity levels had changed in 274 genes, compared with 170 genes for those who exercised more appropriately and 74 for the weight lifters. Among the older group, almost 400 genes were working differently now, compared with 33 for the weight lifters and only 19 for the appropriate exercisers.

Many of these affected genes, especially in the cells of the interval trainers, are believed to influence the ability of mitochondria to produce energy for muscle cells; the subjects who did the interval exercise showed an increase in the number and health of their mitochondria — an impact that was particularly pronounced among the older cyclists. It seems exercise could help contain the decline in the cellular health of muscles associated with aging, especially if it was intense, says Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, the study’s senior author. In fact, older people’s cells responded in some ways more strongly to intense exercise than the cells of the young did — suggesting, he says, that it is never too late to benefit from exercise.

1. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．exercise Might Benefit Aging Muscles

B．Exercise Might Increase Aging Muscles

C．Exercise Might Do Harm to Mitochondria

D．Aging Mainly Occurs in the Cellular Level

2. What can we know about the experiment mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A．Volunteers cannot be good at exercising.

B．All volunteers must have the same baseline.

C．It was carried out among the youth of different sexes.

D．Volunteers received a random particular exercise program.

3. How does the author develop Paragraph 3?

A．By analyzing every group’s different data.

B．By comparing every group’s training time.

C．By listing every group’s different training.

D．By describing every group’s training results.

4. It can be inferred from Paragraph 4 that ______.

A．the experiment did not get expected results

B．riding exercise bikes has no influence on the volunteers

C．weight lifting is the most useful training among these exercises

D．interval training brings stronger influence to the elder than to the youth

5. The underlined word “contain” can be replaced by “______”.

A．change	B．stop
C．record	D．cause