As a game of     1     (wise), Go is a legacy of traditional Chinese arts, considered one of the most important qualities of ancient Chinese literati (文人学士).

Appearing over 4,000 years ago in ancient China, Go was first introduced into Japan during the Sui and Tang Dynasties and into Europe in the 19th century. To date, it     2     (spread) to more than 40 countries.

The traditional game of Go also boasts a number of legends about its origin. It’s said that Emperor Yao became very disheartened when his son behaved     3     (bad). So Yao made the game of Go     4     (cultivate) him morally and intellectually.

It is     5    exciting and intense game and the situation on the board keeps changing and unpredictable. Players have to turn to all sorts of tactics in order to defeat their opponents.

Wu Qingyuan, a Chinese Go legend,     6     (regard) as the greatest Go player ever, once said, “Although Go is a     7     (compete) game, winning should never be seen as the final goal. It will teach you to think through things     8     to remain calm in the face of defeat”.

Go can take     9     other meanings to its players: a mirror of one’s personality, a mental “workout” and a beautiful art in     10     black and white pieces dance in balance across the board. Therefore, Go has become more and more popular among young people.

2 . I had been swimming for years but was ready to quit. My _________ reason was that I kept receiving “Honorable Mentions”, just because I showed up.

One day before a big swim meet, I decided to _________ the news to my grandma that I was _________ the swim team. When I told her, she said, “Baby, remember: Quitters never win and winners never quit.” I was _______   to say anything but “Yes, ma’am.”

The next day we arrived at the swim meet late, _________ my group. My coach _________ I swim with the older group. I knew she was _________ me in the race so our journey to the meet would not be wasted, and she had no expectations that I would _________ anything but eighth place as there weren’t nine _________.

As I was __________ the board, my grandmas words rang in my head. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath.

SPLASH! I swam harder than ever. After a little while, I was __________ to find that I had a half-body length ________ over others. However, they soon __________ the gap. Halfway through the race, the girl to my left almost ________ me. Right then, the powerful words __________ again in my ears. I __________ my arms and legs and used every last bit of __________ to swim the last 50 meters.

I made it! Narrow victory as it was, I did win my first real __________ that day. Everything felt like a dream as I stood on the winner’s __________. Back at home, I __________ replaced all the “Honorable Mentions” on my shelf.

3 . A pickup game is a game of some kind that is not part of a regularly scheduled season of competition or a championship series.    1    . There are no repercussions (负面影响) beyond the final score in terms of standings or future commitment.

    2    . But the types of games that use the term have expanded today. It is now used to refer to casually scheduled games of softball, volleyball, tennis, and even chess.

Pickup games are spontaneous (自发的) and informal.     3    . An all-men’s pickup game may be played as “Shirts vs No Shirts”; it is an easy way to identify teammates and distinguish them from the competitors. “Inside Shirts vs Out Shirts” “White Shirts vs Colored Shirts” and “Men vs Women” are other teams created with the goal of knowing who is who.

Recently, attempts have been made to use the Internet to schedule pickup games. This is a way of helping players connect with other players in their local area and allowing them to have complete teams whenever possible.     4    .   For example, gender, game choice, age, location, and how far they are willing to travel to a game. The main draw of pickup games is that they are meant to be a fun way to practice or show off skills with friends. If a player makes a mistake, he won’t be taken out of the game and worried about losing his playing time.     5    .

4 . Influenced by factors like school funding, sports facilities, teacher resources and safetyconcems, traditional physical education was limited to static (静态的) scenes and closed gymsand playgrounds, which lacked interaction and feedback functions. PE curiculum was also restricted to basic sports like ball games, track and field and gymnastics. However, the emergence and application of new technologies like virtual reality (VR), 3D technology, greatly expand and innovate sports scenes, providing possibilities for the construction of a flexible “on-site, on- campus, online” integrated new sports world.

IT can build online virtual learning environments for students, creating teaching scenes hard to achieve in physical world. Many schools have already partnered with technology companies to create different teaching scenes using digital sports products. The University of South Florida has cooperated with the VR sports training company Sense Arena, allowing students to practice tennis on its globally pioneering VR tennis training platform. Students use the Meta Quest 2 headset and VR touching racket (球拍) which imitates the weight and feel of a real tennis racket. The platform features 35 training modes imitating various scenes in real-life tennis matches, including crowd noise, dazzling sunlight, shadows and wind. Athletes can engage in various forms of training, such as skill practice, technical analysis and match imitation. Such virtual sports teaching space further enhances the experience of PE learning.

Technology-based physical education not only serves ordinary students’ physical health but also addresses the needs of special groups in sports, especially students who cannot participate in regular PE classes due to physical, psychological or social adaptation issues. Many schools offer specialized sports programs to disabled students, like the “Pathways to Inclusion” program launched by the University of Queensland, which tailors various sports activities to different disabilities, such as blind football and wheelchair hockey. This is made possible with the support of sports technology, as different symptoms require the use of different sports equipment.

Through scientific, healthy and joyful educational concepts, technology-empowered PE classes convey the values of creating and enjoying a personalized experience, developing a sports education where everyone participates and benefits.

Life Skills Show

7 . One of the reasons why so many people listen to music during exercise is that it has a number of benefits. The research around the positive influences of music during exercise was reviewed in a paper in the February 2020 issue of Psychological Bulletin.

Probably the biggest influence of music on exercise, based on these findings, is that listening to music during exercise can make you feel better about what you have done. Experiments find that people feel more positive about the exercise when they have listened to music than when they have not. The impact of music didn’t depend on the intensity of the exercise, and the effect appeared for both trained and untrained athletes.

Music also seems to reduce people’s feeling of how much they are exerting themselves. That is, at the same level of intensity of activity, listening to music can make you feel like you are exerting less effort than you would feel without music. Some studies have also shown that when athletes are free to set their own exertion level, they are willing to exercise more intensely with music than without. For some people (particularly when they are early in their training), music helps them focus on the music rather than on pain.

Music also appears to have a small effect on performance overall. Athletes perform better both during exercise and while engaging in their sport when there is music. In the studies analyzed, fast music, with a tempo greater than 120 beats-per-minute, was more effective than slow music. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the athlete chooses the music or whether it is chosen by someone else. So, the playlists selected by the teachers of an exercise class you’re taking may work even if you don’t love all of the songs.

The one place where music doesn’t seem to have much of an impact is on physiological functioning. The heart rate of an athlete is not consistently affected by music.

8 . It’s time to sign up for Kids Bowl Free 2023!

Dates range from center to center and state to state. The center my family signed up for starts from May 3rd but I saw a couple of centers in Pennsylvania and South Carolina that had start dates in APRIL!

Be sure the kids are signed up for Kids Bowl Free 2023.

The Kids Bowl Free 2023 program is not specific to a certain chain of bowling alleys (保龄球场). You can find a participating center near you. Kids (under 15 years old) can get TWO free games EVERY DAY at a participating center. Most places will require a bowling shoe rental-not included in the program.

But wait! That’s not all!

You can also sign up teens and adults for a summer pass for $39.95. Up to 4 people get two games every day during the summer with the family pass so that the whole family can bowl every day!

USE CODE: HOT25 on the Family Pass page * to save 25%! Making it just $29.95!

If the code HOT25 doesn’t work, when it asks if you want to sign up for the Family Pass, find the tiny “No Thanks” button and click it. When you do that, you’ll be offered a discount code!

Shoe rental not included.

Save even more on your kids bowl free when you don’t have to rent shoes! Search Ebay for bowling shoes and get a great deal! I got us each a pair for this year and if we bowl 6 times our shoe cost will be less than if we rented shoes 6 times. And with our own shoes, we can go more often!

10 . The Geography Bee, more properly known as the National Geographic Bee, begins in schools with students from fourth through eighth grade across the United States in December and January.

Each school champion takes a written test upon winning the Bee in their school. One hundred school winners from each state proceed to the State Level Finals in April, based on their scores on a written test scored by the National Geographic Society. The ten finalists compete on day two and the winner is announced and wins a college scholarship.     1    .

An atlas (地图册) can help you become very familiar with the continents, countries states, islands, and major physical features of our planet.     2    .

Prepare flashcards or use some other technique to memorize the capitals of the countries and the capitals of the fifty United States.

Take as many practice quizzes as possible. There are hundreds of multiple-choice Geography Quizzes that will definitely help.     3    . Be sure to use an atlas to look up or understand the questions that you’ve missed.

Read the newspaper and news magazines to learn about geography and to stay up-to-date with major news and events happening around the world.     4    . These events usually occur in the latter part of the year before the Bee. Look up any unfamiliar place names you encounter.

Knowing the main languages, currencies, religions, and former country names is definitely a bonus. It’s most important at the state and national levels.     5    . If you can review the key concepts of physical geography from the physical geography textbook, do so!