1 . Various sports attract fans for different reasons: Spectator sports draw even more fans who just love to watch. Here are some of the most beloved sports worldwide.
Football - 4 billion fans
Football, better known as soccer in the US, is by far the most popular sport in the world. Experts estimate that the origin (起源) of football may go as far back as two thousand years, beginning in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. One major reason for football’s global popularity is that, unlike other sports that require expensive equipment, all you need to play football is a ball and your feet.
Volleyball - 900 million fans
Volleyball pits two teams across a high net, each attempting to smash the ball onto the opponent’s (对手的) floor. A popular variant, beach volleyball, is competed on sand by pairs rather than the regular six players per team. The crowd appeal of beach volleyball has grown greatly in recent years.
Tennis - 1 billion fans
An estimated one billion people worldwide follow professional tennis tournaments and matches. In tennis, players on both sides of a net try to hit a ball with a racket so that it either goes past their opponent or bounces twice on their opponent’s side of the court to score points. Tennis superstars like Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams are now household names around the world, with huge international fan bases.
Hockey - 2 billion fans
Hockey, both on ice and on a field, wins a following of two billion enthusiastic fans worldwide. Field hockey is mainly played in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, while ice hockey is particularly popular in Canada and the US, where kids grow up playing pond hockey. Unlike ice hockey, field hockey usually does not have body contact in the form of checking and hitting.
1. What makes football popular all over the world?| A．Its long history. | B．Its huge fan bases. |
| C．Its unique origin. | D．Its great convenience. |
| A．Football. | B．Hockey. | C．Volleyball. | D．Tennis. |
| A．Football is American people’s favorite sport. |
| B．Playing ice hockey has body contact. |
| C．Beach volleyball has attracted the most sports fans recently. |
| D．A tennis player loses one point if his ball goes past his opponent. |
2 . My son loves hockey (曲棍球). As his supportive fan, I watched him paying in all the matches across half of USA this year, and I’ve learned that losing maybe best for kids.
In his third season in 2022, my son’s team never lost more than three straight games. There was happiness, boasting, celebration, pizza. In short, it was a typically good youth hockey season. He improved as a player, but did not much change as a person.
However, what happened the next year added its story to the legends of sporting inability. Not only weak but prettily bad, this team lost 40 of their first 50 games, most of the defeats coming in the course of two losing streaks (倒霉的时刻). For a time, I worried that these streaks would kill my child’s love of the game.
But that’s not what happened. As bad as it got, the losing was clarifying. It kept out the kids who were in it less for the game than the glory, leaving just the die-hards behind. What started as a list of 17 of the team was cut down to 12. It was especially instructive for the kids. It taught him a great truth of the world: For everyone good, there is someone better.
What more, the kids were learning the game in a way that only losing can teach. Each player got to play everywhere, to learn and appreciate the role of every position on the ice. They kept an eye on the payers from the other team too, studying and applying the tricks of success. In an effort to break the streak, they went back to basics, accepted the intelligence of the hockey ancients: If playing like a team, they can defeat a collection of all-stars; If doing small and unimportant tasks well, they can get the goal.
This new team had personalities and could never be listed, no matter the score. They had learned the most important lesson: You can lose without being beaten. They squeaked into the state game, then made it all the way to the final, where the winner was decided in overtime (超时赛). When they lost that game and went into the handshake line, it was not as runners-up but as a team that had been made into winners in the only way that will stick — by losing.
1. What does the author think about his son’s team in the third season in 2022?| A．The team succeeded as a result of good luck. |
| B．The team had an extremely impressive performance. |
| C．The team didn’t live up to the author’s expectations. |
| D．The team behaved rather badly in three straight games. |
| A．The losing improved their teamwork. |
| B．The losing made them better understand hockey. |
| C．The losing helped them learn a great truth of the world. |
| D．The losing kept true players instead of those for the glory. |
| A．They became the winner finally. |
| B．They didn’t start their training as beginners. |
| C．They have personalities that can be counted. |
| D．They applied themselves to improving their skill. |
| A．Falls seven times, stand up eight. |
| B．The hardest fight is to fight oneself. |
| C．God helps those who help themselves. |
| D．Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. |
3 . Is walking good exercise?
For exercise to really count, it has to be hard or complicated, or leave you totally wiped out with muscle pain for days-right? Not at all! While high-intensity activity certainly has its place, so does the most basic, accessible form of exercise: walking.
Walking is great for all exercise levels.
One of the biggest reasons walking is so popular is because it’s a low-impact exercise. It doesn’t put nearly as much pressure on the joints(关节)as running or any sort of jumping or hopping movement.
Starting is easy.
For people just getting started with fitness, walking is a wonderful form of aerobic exercise(有氧运动).
Enhanced blood flow is going to improve recovery and help ease muscle pain. Although it is not going to completely heal it, it can help reduce it and accelerate the muscle repair process.
| A．Not just for beginners. |
| B．Excellent for recovery. |
| C．The risk of injury is relatively low. |
| D．Walking can also help the body sweep away waste products. |
| E．Walking is a form of mental health treatment for many people |
| F．You don’t need any earlier or special knowledge or training to start. |
| G．Recently, it’s become an even more vital physical activity for many people. |
4 . The stereotype (模式化观念) that girls most enjoy the social side of sport and boys the sense of competition is not to be believed, a study has suggested. In fact, boys and girls are much more similar in what they think makes sport fun than people think, according to researchers in the US.
To gather their findings, a team from George Washington University reviewed an earlier study which looked at what made sport fun for football players aged eight to 19. They found that among the 81 ‘fun’ aspects, winning scored further down than might be expected after it was listed in 40th place. However, they did find some differences in priorities (重点) for what makes sport fun depending on the age or gender (性别) of the young athletes.
Younger players reported it was more important to have a coach who allowed them to play different positions (位置) than older players. Meanwhile boys considered copying the moves of professional athletes and improving their skills to the next level as more important than having fun on the field compared to girls.
The team said their findings, published in Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, could be used by sport organizations to make their programs more fun and keep children playing for longer. “When it comes to organized sports, kids just want to have fun,” said Amanda Visek, associate professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. “This research does not support the common gender and developmental stereotypes we make about kids in sports.” Dr Visek said their findings made clear girls and boys were “more similar than different” when it came to what made sport fun. “What counts most for girls and boys are things like trying your best, working hard, staying active, and playing well together as a team,” she added. “These findings are the same for athletes of younger and older ages and across recreational and more competitive levels of play.”
1. What belief do people traditionally hold about boys and girls in sports?| A．They have different athletic abilities. | B．They like sports for different reasons. |
| C．They show different interests in sports. | D．They play sports at different times of the day. |
| A．They like trying more different positions. | B．They have better relationships with coaches. |
| C．They care more about improving their skills. | D．They think it’s more important to have fun on the field. |
| A．Offer fun programs. | B．Make training time shorter. |
| C．Treat boy and girl players all the same. | D．Invite professional athletes to coach kids. |
| A．They both always put winning first. | B．Their interests in sports change as they grow. |
| C．They value different things when playing sports. | D．They share similar ideas on what makes sports fun. |
5 . Physical education, or gym class, 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 (肥胖症). 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 video games and computer activities, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. Physical education classes act as a public health measure to encourage activity and help teens have healthy weights.
Inactivity increases teens’ risk 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 hindered 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 activity 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.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what does physical education in high school mean?| A．Helping teens learn to make good plans. |
| B．Removing the stress faced by teens at school. |
| C．Getting teens to encourage adults to exercise. |
| D．Making teens attach importance to exercise later. |
| A．Measured. | B．Shown. | C．Prevented. | D．Caused. |
| A．Helping students do better in their studies. |
| B．Helping students make good use of all their time. |
| C．Helping students adjust to their studies better. |
| D．Making students choose between sports and studies. |
| A．How high school students can live a better life. |
| B．Why high school students should receive physical education. |
| C．Why some schools consider physical education important. |
| D．How schools can help students love doing sports. |
6 . Join our Sail Design Competition and Help Us
Clean Ocean Sailing is a voluntary organization whose aim is to clean our coasts and raise awareness about ocean plastic pollution. They have repaired their sailing boat, Annette, to carry out their important mission and she needs a new sail and your help. This new sail will propel (驱动) her over thousands of miles for the next 10 to 15 years. We’re calling on artists with a vision for happy, healthy oceans to submit sail designs for the Clean Ocean Sailing team.
Design Specifications
● Submit a sail design that reimagines a more sustainable future and an ocean free from plastic pollutants. The background color of the sail will be black. The bigger your design, the better it will be! As the sail will only be seen from far away, small details won’t be seen.
● Make sure that there aren’t any important details on the borders of your design.
● This competition is open for anyone to enter — any age and any design capabilities! We are more than happy for designs to be drawn on an A4 piece of paper — just scan and send!
● If the winning design is hand drawn on paper, we will work with you and a designer to create a digitized version of your artwork!
How to enter
Please tag @stroodles straws and @cleanoceansailing, and use #MakeASplash so we can see and share your work! Please submit your artwork by June 30th, 2023, 23:59.
The Prize
A nice box worth £100+ and your design on the sail for 10+ years!
1. What does the Sail Design Competition aim to do?| A．Call on artists to design a sail. | B．Seek volunteers to clean the coasts. |
| C．Hire artists for the Clean Ocean Sailing team. | D．Find someone to repair Annette and other boats. |
| A．Participants must be over 18 years old. | B．Black should be used for the background. |
| C．A digitized version of the artwork is unaccepted. | D．Details should be added on the borders of the design. |
| A．Share his design with others. | B．Pay £100 to enter the competition. |
| C．Submit his artwork after June 30th, 2023. | D．Use #MakeASplash to get his design seen. |
7 . 2023 Illustration (插画) Competition
Enter the competition most respected and admired in the industry for creativity in illustration, the Communication Arts Illustration Competition. Selected by distinguished professionals, the winning entries will be distributed worldwide in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual and on commarts. com, ensuring important exposure of the creations. Each winner will receive a personalized Award of Excellence, made from solid aluminum (铝), and an award certificate. Communication Arts’s Award of Excellence is one of the most desired awards. If chosen, winning places you in the highest ranks of your profession.
What To Enter With
Any illustration first published or produced from Jan. 2022 to Jan. 2023 is fit. Entries may originate from any country. Descriptions in English are necessary for the judges to read.
Entries Can Be Submitted In The Following Formats
Digital Images: RGB images in JPG format with a maximum file size of 2 MB. GIF images may be livelier, but would be turned down, and so would the PNG ones.
Motion Entries: In MOV, MP4 or MPG format, with a maximum file size of 500 MB.
Illustration Competition Categories & Entry Fees
Category | Single illustration | Series of illustrations |
Books (covers, jackets, interiors, etc.) | $40 | $80 (limit of five) |
Motion (media for films, videos, etc.) | $90 | $180(limit of three) |
Student Work (school assignments) | $20 (Image) $45 (Video) | $40 (Images, limit of five) $90 (Video, limit of three) |
For more categories (advertising, self-promotion, etc.), please download the category PDF.
Late Fees
Entries must be registered no later than Jan. 13, 2023. Entries registered after that date will be charged a fee of $10 each. No entries can be registered after Jan. 27, 2023.
1. What will the winner gain?| A．Exposure to world-famous works. | B．A personalized award certificate. |
| C．A bonus from Communication Arts. | D．Wide recognition in the industry. |
| A．A newly produced motion entry. | B．A student work from China. |
| C．A PNG image with a file size of 1 MB. | D．A series for covers of three illustrations. |
| A．$80. | B．$90. | C．$110. | D．$120. |
8 . Sometimes, we need a little help and get back to a state of mindfulness when it comes to taking care of our physical and mental health. Wellness vacations are on the rise.
■ Ketanga Fitness When: April 6—10 Where: Phoenix, Arizona
What: Sweat it out surrounded by the red rocks of Arizona’s desert. P. E. Club owner Nedra Lopez leads a mixture of high and low intensity workouts in the mornings and evenings. During breaks, guests will have plenty of time to explore the desert. After your last workout class, you can hit the town for dinner and drinks.
■Rksolid Retreat (静修) When: April 15—22 Where: Oahu, Hawaii
What: What better excuses to relax yourself in Hawaii than a retreat led by Barry’s Bootcamp star Rebecca Kennedy? During your week-long journey to Oahu, you’ll surf, climb waterfalls, and hike the Stairway to Heaven trail. In between all those workouts, Kennedy creates a special stretch and recovery class so you won’t skip a beat next day.
■ Wellness Immersion (沉浸) When: August Where: Amanbagh, India
What: The Amanbagh hotel offers 4—21 day programs focusing on immersion courses that focus on relieving stress from people’s body. Activities include hikes overlooking beautiful gorges, yoga and meditation sessions, and meals made with organic, locally harvested produce.
■Mile High Run Club When: August 18—28 Where: Reykjavik, Iceland
What: After landing in Reykjavik, runners can work towards their best time in the annual marathon, half marathon, or 10K. After a race, you’ll relax your muscles in the geothermal Blue Lagoon spa and hit the ground running again with guided runs through Thorsmark National Park. Do we even have to mention Saltarello’s crazy glacier views?
1. Which vacation will you choose if you want to visit desert?| A．Ketanga Fitness. | B．Rksolid Retreat. |
| C．Wellness Immersion. | D．Mile High Run Club. |
| A．Men are the target vacationers. |
| B．They are available all year round. |
| C．Courses and classes are arranged during them. |
| D．They are combinations of wellness and scenery. |
| A．To promote marathon events. |
| B．To advertise some P. E. clubs. |
| C．To introduce some wellness vacations. |
| D．To attract more tourists to come to America. |
9 . Sportsmen in the running races of the Olympics are great athletes, but even the slow runners of the running world — joggers in the park — have good health. A study out this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that even 5 to 10 minutes a day of slow running is enough to extend life by several years, compared with not running at all.
The new study focused on a group of more than 55, 000 men and women aged 18 to 100. About a quarter of them were runners. Over 15 years, those who ran just 50 minutes a week or fewer at a slow speed were less likely to die from either cardiovascular (心血管的) disease or other causes, compared with those who didn’t run at all.
The study suggests relatively low efforts are necessary to benefit from jogging, but it can be better to exercise more often. “A little bit is good but a little more is probably better,” says Dr. Aaron Baggish. A 2013 study in Denmark suggested that the secret of maximum longevity is up to 2. 5 hours of running a week.
Although running can make you less likely to have cardiovascular disease, it doesn’t entirely take the risk away from you. “There is no question that the healthier you are and the more exercise you do, the longer you’ll live and the better your quality of life will be,” Dr. Baggish says. “But it doesn’t mean you’ll never get sick.”
“Many long-term runners do not run because they want to live longer,” Dr. Baggish notes. “They run because it makes them feel better every day.”
For these runners, the cost of feeling good can be injuries, so Dr. Baggish supports the value of what he calls “active rest.” His belief, not supported by any recent research, is that it’s a good idea to spend 25% of exercise time over the course of a year running at a slow speed or doing other activities like swimming or biking.
1. What does the new study mainly show us?| A．The best way to run. | B．The best time to run. |
| C．The importance of running. | D．The popularity of running. |
| A．It can result from running often. | B．It’s not completely preventable. |
| C．It’s not so serious as most people think. | D．It can be treated by some kind of exercise. |
| A．Staying active all the time. | B．Swimming more, run less. |
| C．Having a big rest after doing sports. | D．Taking a little light exercise. |
| A．Health. | B．Business. | C．Society. | D．Medicine. |
10 . At a school soccer field in Rongjiang County, Guizhou, thousands of people, both villagers and tourists, are gathering to see a big event — the “Village Football Association (Village FA)”.
It is an exciting and fun soccer competition happening in a village. The people who live there organized it, and it has become really popular online lately. The competition takes place every Friday to Sunday from May 13th to July 29th. There are 20 teams made up of 16 different ethnic groups(民族) taking part in. The players, who come from local villages, have different jobs like butchers, farmers, and building workers. Instead of getting trophies (奖杯) as prizes, they receive things like salted meat, red eggs, and even live animals.
Yang Yajiang, the vice president of the soccer association in Rongjiang County, says, “________” Even though the players are not professionals (职业选手), they come together as a team and compete no matter what the result is.
Some of the people supporting the teams are in their 80s and don’t even know the rules of the game. But they still show up to cheer for their village teams. This spirit of unity isn’t just found in one village, but it’s seen among people from all over the country. Can you imagine a scene where after a match, suddenly 50,000 supporters from different ethnic groups come together to sing a song called “Me and My Country”?
Village FA is also a special event for the locals to show their culture. During breaks between matches, there are colorful performances by people from different ethnic groups. They sing, dance, and even have fashion shows where they wear traditional costumes.
1. Where do Village FA players come from?| A．FIFA. | B．Villages. | C．Cities. | D．Clubs. |
| A．All of us have high expectations of the result. |
| B．It takes a long time to get this competition prepared. |
| C．The players will be famous and rich after the competition. |
| D．Village FA is a great example to show the spirit of sports. |
| A．Village FA started in Guizhou Province. |
| B．People who watch the game will know more about local culture. |
| C．Local people wish to make a lot of money through this competition. |
| D．Everyone who watches the competition knows the rules of the game. |
| A．Village FA — the Online Game that Brings People Together |
| B．Village FA — the Big Event to Show the Culture of Guizhou |
| C．Village FA — the Popular Game Among Young People in China |
| D．Village FA — the Exciting Football Matches in Chinese Rural Areas |
