1 . The UK has many strange traditions. One is Pancake Day. This tradition comes from Shrove Tuesday. It is a Christian tradition before the star of Lent. On that day, people across the UK make and eat pancakes in order to use up the food they have in their houses before the start of Pancakes are large and thin and can be topped with either salty or sweet ingredients. People make pancakes in their homes but you might also find that some schools or businesses hold special Pancake Day events, one of which is pancake race.

In a typical pancake race, competitors have to run holding a frying pan with a pancake in it. As competitors run, they have to throw the pancake in the air so that it flips and lands back in the pan on the other side. The winner is the first to reach the finish line, although they should also be careful to make sure that the pancake is complete and that it hasn't broken along the way.

One of the most famous pancake races is the Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race. The race is a competition between two teams—one team of Members of Parliament (MPs), and one team of journalists—most of whom take part in the race wearing their work suits! The race is shown on the news and covered on TV all around the world. And as well as a bit of fun, the race is also held for a good cause. It draws people's attention to the charity Rehab, which works with people with disabilities and others who suffer from social exclusion.

Another important part of the race is the official starter chosen to announce the start of the race. This is seen as a prestigious role and is usually given to a British news presenter. But whoever is chosen usually has a hard time trying to control the race-the MPs are known for cheating every year!

2 . Over the years, cheerleading has taken two primary forms: game-time cheerleading and competitive cheerleading. Game-time cheerleader’ main goal is to entertain the crowd and lead them with team cheers, which should not be considered a sport. However, competitive cheerleading is more than a form of entertainment. It is really a competitive sport.

Competitive cheerleading includes lots of physical activity. The majority of the teams require a certain level of tumbling (翻腾运动) ability. It’s a very common thing for gymnasts, so it’s easy for them to go into competitive cheerleading. Usually these cheerleaders integrate lots of their gymnastics experience including their jumps, tumbling, and overall energy. They also perform lifts and throws. This is where the “fliers” are thrown in the air, held by “bases” in different positions that require strength and working with other teammates.

Competitive cheerleading is also an activity that is governed by rules under which a winner can be declared. It is awarded points for technique, creativity and sharpness. Usually the more difficult the action is, the better the score is. That’s why cheerleaders are trying to experience great difficulty in their performance. Besides, there is also a strict rule of time. Any performance beyond the limit of time is invalid (无效的).

Another reason for the fact that competitive cheerleading is one of the hardest sports is that it has more reported injuries. According to some research, competitive cheerleading is the number one cause of serious sports injuries to women. Emergency room visits for it are five times the number than for any other sport, partially because cheerleaders don’t use protective equipment. Smiling cheerleaders are thrown into the air and move down into the arms of the teammates, which may easily cause injuries. Generally, these injuries affect all areas of the body, including wrists, shoulders, ankles, head, and neck.

There can be no doubt that competitive cheerleading is a sport with professional skills. Hopefully, it will appear in the Olympics since cheerleaders are just as athletic and physically fit as those involved in the more accepted sports. It should be noted that it is a team sport and even the smallest mistake made by one teammate can bring the score of the entire team down. So without working together to achieve the goal, first place is out of reach.

3 . 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.

4 . Although most games have winners and losers, the goal of sports is not to win every game. The real goals include getting exercise, having fun, and learning important social skills, like sportsmanship.

Good sportsmanship is all about respect. Good sports (有体育精神的人) respect their teammates and also their opponents. They respect their coaches, and they also respect the referees or other officials involved in their games.     1     They shout at their teammates and they talk back to coaches or referees.

Kids usually learn sportsmanship good and bad from the adults in their lives.     2     If parents and coaches show disrespect for other fans, referees, or each other, kids will likely act the same way on the field.

    3     Some of them are very basic and easy to do, like shaking hands with other players before a game. Other examples may take a little more courage, such as acknowledging a great play made by the opposing team.

Learning good sportsmanship is important because it helps you develop an attitude of graciousness (礼貌) and respect that will carry over into all the other areas of your life.     4     Being a good sport in the classroom will eventually lead to being a good sport in the workplace.

So be a good sport in whatever you do!     5     When others see you acting in a way that makes it clear that winning isn’t the most important thing, you can move on to focusing on the important things, like having fum, getting exercise, and improving your skills!

5 . A fresh and gentle wind on your face, soft sand under your feet and blue waters as far as the eye can see. Is there any other Olympic sport that is played in such pleasant conditions as beach volleyball？

“I’ve gone to a lot of beautiful places, and met a lot of beautiful people. That wouldn’t have happened if I had been playing another sport.” said Randy Stoklos, America’s most famous beach volleyball player.

The sport began as a four-a-side game on beaches in Southern California in the 1920s. The first recorded two-man game took place there in 1930, and the first tournament (锦标赛) was held in Los Angeles 18 years later. The winners were awarded a case of Pepsi. In the 1950s, women started playing and the sport soon spread to Europe and South America. Yet at that time, beach volleyball was more an entertainment show than a sport, with beauty contests included. The Association of Volleyball Professionals was founded in 1983 and beach volleyball developed into a fast, athletic sport. Its world-wide popularity won beach volleyball a place at the 1996 Olympics in Atalanta, where 24 male teams and 16 female teams took part. At present, the US and Brazil are the best in the world at beach volleyball.

The game came to China in the early 1990s and there have been national tournaments since 1994. It became an official event at the Eighth National Games in 1997. China’s You Wenhui and Wang Lu finished ninth in the women’s beach volleyball world championships in Brazil.

6 .     1    . The legendary volleyball coach Lang Ping gave the answer in the recent documentary (纪录片) The Iron Hammer.

The documentary displays Lang’s inspiring journey from her gold medal victory as a volleyball player in the 1984 Olympics to her amazing career as a successful coach for both Team USA from 2005 to 2008 and China since 2013. She was the first person to win Olympic volleyball gold as a player and coach. Lang Ping revealed the secret to such remarkable achievements in the documentary. As she said, “    2    ”.

    3    . Troubled by severe injuries to her cervical vertebra, back, waist and knees, caused by intense exercise and hard work, the 60-year-old has undergone more than 10 surgeries. “No parts of my body function well,” she joked.

But illness is certainly not the only difficulty Lang has faced. In 2005, she struggled with balancing raising her daughter Lydia Bai Lang, who lived in the US, and her coaching career. She eventually decided to work for USA Volleyball that year.     4    “I’m proud of being Chinese”   Lang responded in an interview. Later she returned to head the Chinese women ’s volleyball team in 2013, leading the team successfully defending its World Cup crown with a perfect record of 11 straight wins last year.

There is no doubt that Lang is one of the greatest players and coaches in history. As an American athlete commented in the documentary,     5    .

8 . When Tony took up running as a hobby he was 42 years old. Now 42 years later he’s a national champion and a world record holder.

He never imagined at the age of 84 this is where he’d be, but then he doesn’t meet many people in their 80s who are out training four times a week.

“I can see it’s a bit unusual, yes. But it’s been my life,” he told the reporter. The retired officer runs at a track near his home in Leeds.

At an event in Italy last month he set a world record in the 80 metres hurdles（跨栏）with a time of under 17 seconds. But he sees no reason to slow down and his ambition（雄心）is still to be competing when he passes a hundred.

“I probably won’t be doing a crouch start（蹲式起跑）, but it’s only 16 years away,” he joked. Like anyone his age, he’s had health problems. He’s had a string of severe heart attacks, but doctors have told him as long as it makes him feel good, he should carry on running.

“I can’t let my heart get in the way of my training. When I am sprinting I have to give it my absolute all. My heart is the last thing on my mind. ” he said.

He trains every other day, dances and plays hockey and he recently cuts down on alcohol （酒精）and chocolate. He said “ I’ve heard alcohol can lead to dementia and I don’t want that. I’ve cut down to one glass of wine every other day. I now have to stay as fit as I can be to keep up my lifestyle.”

Tony’s next birthday is next September. And the first thing he wants to do is become the world’s fastest 85-year-old.

10 . One afternoon last week, I saw three tearful children from my son's school being comforted by teachers. That morning, my 11-year-old had stomach pains, retching （干呕）into a bowl. Talking to other mothers later. I heard about other children with stomachache or difficult sleeping the night before.

What caused so much pain? Sports day. Sports day might be necessary at a highly-competilive independent school, but not at a village primary school. For the children who can fly like the wind, sports day causes no problem. For those who are overweight or just not good at sport, it is a nightmare （噩梦）.Even for those who enjoy running but fall halfway down the track in front of the entire school and their parents, it can prove a disease.

Why do we put our children through this annual suffering? Some may say competition is character building; or it’s taking part, not winning, that’s important; or that’s a tradition of school life. I just felt great pity for those children in tears or in pain.

Team games at the end of sports day produced some close races, wild enthusiasm, lots of shouting —and were fun to watch More importantly, the children who were not so fast or quick at passing the ball were hidden a little from everyone's eyes. Some of them also had the thrill of being on the winning side.

I wish that sports day could be abandoned and replaced with some other less competitive event. Perhaps an afternoon of team games, with a few races for those who want them, would be less stressful for the children and a lot more fun to watch.