Tony and I were in our school basketball team, the Lions. We loved basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. When we weren’t playing on the court, we were watching a game on TV. My favourite player was LeBron James while Tony’s was Tyrone Bogues.
Bogues was only 1.6 metrest all, which made him the shortest player ever in the NBA. Guess what? Tony was only 1.6metrest all, too! Tony knew that being shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration. Tony once said, “If Bogues could make it, why not me?”
But our coach was not so sure. Tony had to tryout many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench(场边休息区), being just a replacement. Everyone knew Tony had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Tony didn’t get a chance.
This week, the Lions were playing our main competitors, the Bears, a team whose record this season had been perfect. They hadn’t lost a single game.
The last quarter began, and my team was behind by 10 points. Suddenly, a player and I crashed into each other. Pain raced through my body. My knee hurt badly. “I don’t think I can play anymore, coach,” I said quietly as the doctor put an icepack on my knee.
“No way,” the coach replied sharply. “We’ve got no more players!”
注意：1.续写词数应为100左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“What about Tony?” someone suggested.
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It seems that deep, long-lasting happiness comes from intangible things, rather than things like chocolates and smart-phones. One essential factor is human relationships. People who have the support of family members and also have strong friendships are more likely to be happy. Feeling protected and respected and knowing you can trust in the people around you is vital. But happiness means you have to give and take. Performing acts of kindness and generosity on a regular basis, for example, listening to a friend in need or carrying a neighbor’s shopping, will make you feel on top of the world. Even a simple smile can work wonders. In fact, they say that one smile makes a person feel as good as eating 2,000 bars of chocolates(not all at once, of course).
It is not surprising that health is another key contributor to happiness. Poor health will certainly make you feel down in the mouth. But being healthy and staying healthy require some effort. A healthy diet is crucial and so is regular exercise. Laziness will not make you happy. Exercising for 20 to 30 minutes a day helps to reduce stress and anxiety and makes you feel more positive and optimistic because it releases endorphins(feel-good chemicals). So, if you have been feeling blue and worrying too much about your exams, get exercising. You’ll also find that you sleep better.
Talking of sleep, do you often wake up feeling miserable? If so, it’s probably because you haven’t had enough of it. Teenagers tend to go to bed too late and have to get up early, so many suffer from a lack of sleep. Tiredness will certainly affect your happiness levels and put you in a bad mood. It also affects your ability to concentrate and may slow your growth. So if you want to be happy and do well at school, try to get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Now that you know the theory, it’s time to put it all into practice.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Dave had loved basketball for as long as he could remember and he had never had a day without playing it. At primary school and junior high school he joined basketball clubs, attended training programs and watched basketball games, from which he learned the moves of the star players, wishing to play in a professional team like them and shine on the court.
Now as a senior high school student, however, his dream of becoming a professional player was dimming (变暗) because he was only of average height. He had to give up the hope of joining the school team. The guys on the school team were all tall boys who played matches and won honors for the school. They were like heroes. Dave watched them play and cheered them but he knew he would never be one of them.
Dave felt it a pity not to be tall enough, but this didn’t stop him from pouring his passion into basketball. He just played for the love of the sport. He played in the school gym with other boys or by himself every day, even during holidays and weekends, when it was open for two hours in the morning. He enjoyed every minute on the court making every effort to play better.
It was one Saturday morning. Dave was playing in the gym by himself, as all the other boys were busy with other weekend affairs. Then he noticed a tall boy approaching. It was Lankas. Everybody knows him as captain of the school basketball team. “Hi, Lankas,” Dave greeted him. “My name is Dave.” “Hi, Dave,” Lankas replied as he got closer. “Nice to see you here. Do you need an opponent to play against?” Dave was shocked, frozen right there, unable to believe his ears but somehow, he answered, “Why not?”
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
So, a game of two players began.
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The next Saturday, when Dave was playing in the gym, Lankas appeared shouting, “Dave, I have good news for you.”
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Change is needed in youth sports
Everywhere you look, you see kids bouncing a basketball or waving a tennis racket. And these kids are getting younger and younger. Children can even compete on basketball, baseball, and volleyball teams starting at age nine. The youth soccer organization has teams for children as young as five. And swimming and gymnastics classes begin at age four, to prepare children for competition.
It’s true that a few of these kids will develop into highly skilled athletes and may even become members of our national Olympic teams. But what about the others-the average kids? This emphasis on competition in sports is having serious negative effects.
Children who get involved in competitive sports at a young age often grow tired of their sport. Many parents pressure their kids to choose one sport and devote all their time to it. A survey found that 79% of parents of young athletes wanted their children to concentrate on one sport. But 66% of the young athletes wanted to play more than one sport-for fun.
Another problem is the pressure posed by over-competitive parents and coaches. Children are not naturally competitive. In fact, a recent study by Paul David has found that most children don’t even understand the idea of competition until they are seven years old. Very young kids don’t know why their parents are pushing them so hard.
The third, the biggest problem for young athletes is the lack of time to do their homework, have fun, be with friends-in short, time to be kids. When they are forced to spend every afternoon at sports practice, they often start to hate their chosen sport. Researchers have found that 70% of kids who take part in competitive sports before the age of twelve quit before they turn eighteen. Many of them completely lose interest in sports. Excessive competition takes away all the enjoyment.
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Should E-sports Be in the Olympics?
The International Olympic Committee and the Global Association of International Sports Federations recently hosted an e-sports forum to explore shared similarities, possible partnership and the tricky question of whether video gaming could be recognized as an Olympic event. Ever since the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris first expressed its interest in possibly adding electronic sports to the Olympic Games program, we’ve seen a growing interest by the IOC in e-sports—“since the youth are interested, let’s embrace this,” said the organizing committee of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
To tell the truth, as a former-world class high jumper, I struggle with the notion of e-sports becoming an Olympic sport. Conversations I’ve had with other Olympians reveal concerns about comparing the physical skill and demands of traditional athletic competition with e-sports.
Given the growth in popularity, it’s understandable why the IOC would want to partner with e-sports. The IOC generates more than 90 percent of its revenue from broadcast and sponsorship. The marketing firm Newzoo estimated last year that with brand investment growing by 48 per cent, the global e-sports economy will reach almost $1 billion in 2018.
What’s more, most Olympians recognize that those who participate in e-sports spend a great deal of time training—even working with nutritionists and sport psychologists to improve their prowess. But is that enough to join the Olympic Games family?
Is e-sport a sport? To answer this question, perhaps we need to revisit the academic definition of sport. While differences may exist in their granular descriptions of sport, researchers appear to converge on three central attributes: The sport involves a physical component, it is competitive, and it is institutionalized, meaning a governing body establishes the rules of performance.
While e-sports can be argued to be competitive and institutionalized, the first criterion is where it falls short. Given the IOC’s advocacy role for physical activity, e-sports seems to be a conflict with its push for an active society. In an interview with Inside the Games, Sarah Walker, an IOC Athletes’ Commission member, explained her opposition, “If I were inspired to be a gamer, I would go home and sit on the couch as my first step.”
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学校要举办才艺大赛，你最初不敢报名。但是，最后还是下定决心报名参赛。请给出一个你认为合理的结果，并就这件事给你的启示写一篇文章。文章必须包括以下内容：
●比赛前你的内心活动；
●比赛中你展示的才艺；
●你对比赛结果的感受。
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1. 学生锻炼情况描述;
2. 简单评论;
3. 你的建议。
注意：1. 写作词数80词左右；
2. 文章的开头已为你写好且不计入总词数；
3. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
How Often Do Students Exercise?
How often do students exercise? To find out the answer, our school English newspaper conducted a survey last week.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Phys ed (physical education) is making a comeback as a part of the school core curriculum, but with a difference. While group sports are still part of the curriculum, the new way is to teach skills that are useful beyond gym class. Instead of learning how to climb a rope, children are taught to lift weights, balance their diets and build physical endurance. In this way, kids are given the tools and skills and experiences so they can lead a physically active life the rest of their life.
Considering that 15 percent of American children aged 6 to 18 are overweight, supporters say more money and thought must be put into phys ed curriculum. In many cases, that may mean not just replacing the old gym-class model with fitness programmes but also starting up phys ed programmes because school boards often “put P. E. on the chopping block, cutting it entirely or decreasing its teachers or the days it is offered”, says Alicia Moag-Stahlberg, the executive director of Action for Health Kids. The difference in phys ed programmes is partly due to the lack of a national standard. “Physical education needs to be part of the core curriculum,” she added. The wisdom of the new approach has some scientific support.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have demonstrated how effective the fit-for-life model of gym class can be. They observed how 50 overweight children lost more weight when they cycled and skied cross-country than when they played sports. The researchers also found that teaching sports like football resulted in less overall movement, partly because reluctant students were able to sit on the bench.
Another problem with simply teaching group sports in gym class is that only a tiny percentage of students continue playing them after graduating from high school. The new method teaches skills that translate to adulthood.
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Movement on a regular basis keeps kids healthy and fit for school. The benefits of sports have been demonstrated in numerous studies. Now a research team at the TU Munich has found proof of the correlation between physical fitness, concentration and health-related quality of life for primary school pupils.
The study involved 3,285 girls and 3,248 boys from Bavaria’s Berchtesgadener Land district. The key criteria were physical strength and endurance, the ability to concentrate and health-related quality of life, as determined by the scientists according to internationally standardized test procedures.
The results of the study show: The higher the level of children’s physical fitness, the better they can concentrate and the higher their health-related quality of life. While the boys did better on the fitness tests, the girls performed better in terms of concentration and quality of life values.
At the same time, in all tests for physical fitness overweight and obese children had significantly poorer results than underweight children and children with normal body weight. Obese children also had significantly poorer values for health-related quality of life on the whole, physical well-being, self-esteem as well as well-being in friendships and at school.
Another important result of the study: “Primary school pupils with good physical fitness and a good ability to concentrate are more likely to make it to secondary grammar schools,” says Prof. Renate Oberhoffer-Fritz, holder of the TUM Chair of Preventive Pediatrics and Dean of the TUM Department of Sport and Health Sciences.
“This means it’s all the more important to encourage motor development in children at an early stage, since this can also have a positive impact on the development of mental fitness,” adds Prof. Oberhoffer-Fritz. “Collaboration among parents, schools, communities and athletic clubs is very important when it comes to creating a comprehensive and appropriate range of possibilities.”
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It was the last game of the season. I had been playing soccer all summer. I really enjoyed running around with the other players in my bright blue uniform, chasing the black and white ball across the grassy field. As much as I tried, though, I still had not scored one single goal.
“Don’t give up,” said my coach. Before each game, we had a practice session. He showed me and my team how to pass the ball to each other and take shots at the goal. I was pretty good at passing the ball, but even during practices, I couldn’t kick the ball past the goalkeeper. I wondered if I should quit soccer for good.
“Don’t give up,” said my teammates. Some had been playing soccer for a couple of years, and some were new to the game just like me. “You just need to keep trying and you will get better.” So I stayed on the team and did my best.
The break was over and the judge blew his whistle to start the game again. The two teams walked back onto the field, both determined to win. I bent, tied up my shoelace and heard my coach whisper in my ear. “Look for an opportunity to get the ball. You can do it.”
I stood up and took a deep breath. Even if I didn’t get one goal all summer, I knew that I had tried my best. That was something to be proud of. So I smiled at my coach and headed to my position. The whistle blew, and the game continued.
The score was tied (平局) with one goal each. The yellow team was pretty good, but my blue team was fast. Our ponytails (马尾辫) jumped up and down as we ran, with many feet kicking wildly at the ball when it came near us. I was off to the side when the ball headed my way. I ran over to it and kicked it.
I watched it land right in front of a girl on the yellow team who expertly stopped it and sent it back in the other direction. I sighed.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I watched the ball go back and forth between the players.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hearing the coach, I didn’t hesitate.
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