1 . 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.

2 . 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.

6 . I started training in tae kwon do (跆拳道) by accident. But in the first class, I learned something exciting—how to ________ someone grabbing your arm. I loved it, so I kept practicing and earning higher ranks.

At every rank, I found something ________, whether it was the kicks in the air or the increasingly complex patterns. But over time, “I can’t” ________ “How can I?” which then became “How will I?”

One day, I showed up to class and students were ________ wooden boards. I was convinced that they were all crazy and “I can’t” voice yelled again.

I watched, in ________ as student after student walked up to solid pieces of wood and broke them with their hands or their feet. When I was given the opportunity to ________ I chickened out. But my ________ were extremely patient. They invited me to work individually with them. I refused their first and second offer, but ________, I agreed to try.

They told me that board breaking was more a mental ________ than a physical one and taught me how to line up to break that board. And the first time I went to ________ it, I was so afraid that I missed and accidentally kicked the board holder’s fingers. I felt ________ but he encouraged me to try again. I told that doubting voice in my ________ to “shut up!”

I focused on the ________ I thought about how much I had improved and how I had surprised myself. I told myself I ________ to believe that I was able to do amazing things. And then—suddenly that board looked a lot less ________ I kicked with everything I had and it worked.

7 . 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.

8 . 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.

9 . All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy and happy, and to live longer.     1    They buy tickets or turn on their TVs to watch the games. Often they get very excited when their player or team wins.

    2    Football, for example, has spread around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers. What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy!     3    Think how many lovers to skate or ski in Japan, Norway or Canada.

Some sports or game go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese Kungfu, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet.     4    Water-skiing is one of the newest in the family of sports.

People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game together they often become good friends.     5    One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace.

10 . I come from a family that loves sports. My father coaches Little League baseball. My mother swims nearly every weekend. My brother is on his high-school basketball team, and I am the best hitter on my middle-school volleyball team. All of us have benefited(受益）from sports. One of the most common ways for kids to take part in sports is to join a team. Joining a sports team should be a school requirement.

Playing sports is good for both the body and mind. Everyone knows that exercise helps people stay fit. For example, swimming helps your heart work better and it also helps build muscle strength(肌肉力量）. In addition, school athletes(运动员） often have a healthy diet. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and avoid fatty foods because I must stay in great condition.

Being on a team allows students to enjoy a healthier social life. They often make more friends and can be some of the most popular kids in school. Since joining the basketball team, my brother has made friends with a lot of his tea mates and has showed more interest in spending time with them.

Kids who take part in school teams sometimes earn college scholarships(奖学金）. My brother's friend, Justin, played football in high school. His family did not have money to send him to college. However, a college invited him to play on its team. The college is paying for him to go to school. Joining a team turned out to be one of the best decisions he had ever made. Now he studies at a great college and plays on its football team Not every school athlete gets a college scholarship, but joining a school team-makes it possible.

Although some people may not like the idea of forcing students to join a school team, its many benefits such as keeping kids heal thy, new friendships, and possible scholarships cannot be denied(否认）.