4 . Below is a list of the most worthwhile writing competitions available.

TALF Flash Fiction Competition

The theme of this contest from Theme Arts and Literature Festival is "The Prime of Lile" in recognition of the l5th anniversary of the death of Muriel Spark. You can deal with this theme in any genre (体裁) and in any way you choose, although you are limited to 500 words.

Prizes : £200, £100, £50.

Entry Fee : £8.

Wild Nature Poetry Award 2022

Here we have a new contest from Indigo Dreams Publishing. It is for poems of up to 48 lines on the subject of cruel sports, wildlife in general, the natural world, or the environment.

Prizes: £200, £100, £75.

Entry Fee: £5.

SPM Poetry Book Competition

This international contest from Sentinel Poetry Movement is for full-length poetry collections on any theme and in any style. To enter, you submit up to 20 pages initially. If shortlisted (入围), you have to submit the full collection before December 31 .

Prizes: £500, £250, £100.

Entry Fee: £25.

Poetry Space Competition 2022

Here's a new contest from Poetry Space, an online platform for modern poetry from around the world, which requires poems of up to 40 lines on any subject. You have to be over 16 to enter. The judge is Rosie Jackson, a poet and creative writing tutor.

Prizes: £300, £200, £100.

Entry Fee: £5.

5 . On a Sunday morning, Tim Abernathy walked off the dance floor at the Barn Dance and sat down in a chair to rest with his wife, Rachel. Then something felt wrong. His _________ got tight, then tighter. He grabbed Rachel’s hand, then _________ to the floor.

“His eyes had _________ back,” said Rachel. “His lips were getting darker.” The band stopped playing. People started yelling, but nobody _________ to act.

Someone _________ did. It was Johnny “Digger” Tucker. He swiped (挥动) his fingers through Tim’s mouth, thinking he could be choking. He started beating on Tim’s chest and began mouth-to-mouth. More _________ . More mouth-to-mouth. Then finally, Tim _________ a breath. The paramedics (护理人员) came, and Johnny quietly left.

“If Johnny hadn’t been there, I would be _________ my husband now, “said Rachel. Folks say Johnny Tucker is the type of man you’d call at 2 a. m. Maybe it’s because he knows more than most how _________ life is. Every day, he faces __________ .

Johnny is a gravedigger. He has dug the final resting places for about 20, 000people, each grave __________ a half feet deep in __________, frozen ground. “I treat everybody as if it were my family I’m burying,” he said. He is so respected that funeral directors arrange their schedules around his __________ .

So maybe it’s not __________ that Johnny often finds himself in a position to lend a hand. That night Johnny and his wife were __________ when the band played an old song. They turned around for one more slow dance. Minutes later, the gravedigger saved a life.

7 . Body language is a very powerful tool of a communication, not only between people but in the animal world as well. In many instances, we produce idioms which are all understandable by borrowing examples from animal communication. For example, we know that a frightened cat will arch（拱型）. From this starting-point we might hear the expression. “He gets my back up!” meaning “He makes me angry.”

In the same manner, we know that many animals, if challenged（挑战）by attackers, will not turn and run away because this will encourage the attackers to attack them more forcefully. Instead, they will move backwards slowly to get out of harm’s way, always facing their attacker. We call this action “backing off” and it can be used as well with humans as with animals.

In the case of humans, however, the back-off may not be physical but oral, as in using a kinder tone of voice and gentle words instead of fighting against the attackers.

8 . The Biggest Stadiums in the World

People have been pouring into stadiums since the days of ancient Greece. In around 80 A.D., the Romans built the Colosseum, which remains the world’s best known stadium and continues to inform contemporary design. Rome’s Colosseum was 157 feet tall and had 80 entrances, seating 50,000 people. However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.

These days, safety regulations-not to mention the modern sports fan’s desire for a good view and comfortable seat — tend to keep stadium capacities (容量) slightly lower. Even soccer fans tend to have a seat each; gone are the days of thousands standing to watch the match.

For the biggest stadiums in the world, we have used data supplied by the World Atlas list so far, which ranks them by their stated permanent capacity, as well as updated information from official stadium websites.

All these stadiums are still functional, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.

·Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, Pyongyang D.P.R. Korea. Capacity: 150,000. Opened: May 1,1989.

·Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U. S. Capacity: 107,601. Opened: October 1, 1927.

·Beaver Stadium, State College, Pennsylvania, U. S. Capacity: 106,572. Opened: September 17, 1960.

·Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, U. S. Capacity: 104,944. Opened: October 7,1922.

·Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, U. S. Capacity: 102,512. Opened: September 24, 1927.