Egyptian radiologist Ahmed Hassan liked the design and architecture of China’s     1     (remark)Temple of Heaven so much that he decided to build a replica (复制品) of Beijing’s historic monument with matchsticks.

In his free time, while exercising his hobby of building models of landmarks with matchsticks, Hassan spent more than two months     2     (work) on the Temple of Heaven. He finished the whole replica of it using about 22,000 matchsticks which he thought is one of the key landmarks and tourist     3     (attract) of Beijing, the capital of China.

The over 600-year-old monument covers     4     area of 270 hectares and     5     (consider) one of the largest existing architectural complexes in the world. Just as the original circular building is     6     (complete) wooden with no nails, the Egyptian radiologist used only matchsticks, white glue and a cutter blade to build the replica of the temple.

Hassan,     7     returned to his old hobby in 2013,     8     (produce) more than 20 replicas of monuments from Egypt, Britain, France, Denmark and Russia over the past few years. He said that building a matchstick model of the Temple of Heaven wasn’t an easy job, for it was his first time     9     (carry) out a replica of a landmark from Asia in general and China     10     particular.

4 . I’m a second-year student of Coventry University. For more than a year, I have been volunteering for SHOUT, a text-based _______ health support service.

This time last year, we all watched the COVID-19 unfold across the country. I had planned to work in the summer vacation, but this became _______ when the first lockdown began. My days became a(n) _______ of watching the news and wishing I could do something. Fortunately, I learned about SHOUT in an email from my university’s volunteering team _______ the charity needed more volunteers, due to the increase in _______ they were receiving since the pandemic (流行病) began. I applied instantly.

SHOUT volunteers _______ as a listening ear to anyone who needs support, at any time, with their mental health. The service supports them and encourages self-care techniques to keep people _______ during the pandemic. This service was especially important during lockdown, when clinical services were often _______. As volunteers, we never give advice; often our texters just need someone to _______.

My volunteering ________ have had a huge positive impact on my mental health. I have been able to gain new   ________ from gardening to instructing. In a voluntary capacity, the pressure is off. If I’m struggling, my teammates will always encourage me to rest and   ________ for a while. And when I’m feeling strong, I can get involved again and ________ other people in their time of need.

The skills I’ve gained by volunteering have given me the ________ to successfully apply for an internship (实习生) with Coventry University. I strongly believe volunteering has changed my life, and I encourage everyone to ________ opportunities to change theirs too.

5 . If you’re interested in staying healthy as you age — and living longer — you might want to add a different set of muscles to your workout routine; your creative ones.    1    . And studies show that participating in activities such as singing, theater performance and visual artistic skill could support the well-being of older adults, and that creativity, which is related to the personality of openness, can lead to greater longevity (寿命).

Think—and travel—outside the box

“People who travel tend to be more creative,” said Darya Zabelina, a psychology professor at the University of Arkansas. Traveling encourages people to reexamine their models of reality. Some studies show that travelers have more creative success, and that people who enjoy unfamiliar experiences perform better on open-ended questions calling for many ideas.     2    .

    3    

Generating ideas is one part of the creativity, but knowledge is required to identify the ones that will work. Even if mental speed declines, a person’s base of knowledge is well-preserved as it expands over time.

“You have more to draw on,” said Nye, who thinks her creativity improved when she reached her 60s.

Mine adversity (逆境)

    4    . New Yorker Tobi Zausner discovered her mature painting style only after a severe drug poisoning. Following a battle against cancer, she became a psychologist and wrote a book about adversity followed by creative breakthroughs, When Walls Become Doorways.     5    . They increased their inspiration by sharpening their senses and increasing their emotional sensitivity (敏感性).

6 . “I think therefore I am”— mind over matter. What you expect from yourself and the world makes a big impact on the results of your efforts.

From a neuroscience perspective, the brain will believe anything you tell it, right and wrong. Research has shown that this phenomenon can have huge benefits when we approach a significant or difficult task. “We do know there’s the mind-body connection, which isn’t kind of mysterious or magical, and that this is in itself changing our physiology,” said David Robson, a science writer. “Think that you could catch up in a race or that your public speaking anxiety could help you perform better.”

Expectations, even negative ones, are meant to help our brains navigate (理解) a complicated world by simplifying our predictions of the wide range of outcomes to any situation. Those negative expectations can help us anticipate and avoid danger, but they aren’t always up to date with the context that surrounds us. And when you’re in the face of a challenge, inaccurate information can create obstacles of its own. Pessimistic thoughts really just put you in a position where you’re more vulnerable to actually experiencing that unpleasant or negative outcome.

Setting more positive expectations and hopefully acquiring the rewards starts with how you talk to yourself. When baseball players step up to the plate, they tell themselves they will knock it out of the park. Being aware of your thoughts and how you talk to yourself about a challenge can make a big impact.

We tend to see ourselves and our obstacles in two ways. Either our abilities are fixed or can grow, and our obstacles are a threat or a challenge. Shifting focus to believe that we can see difficulties as a challenge to be met rather than a threat to be avoided has been shown to result in more success. If you interpret that situation as a challenge, your physiological response will empower and equip you to be more creative and effective.

Having realistically optimistic expectations does better equip each of us to take up a challenge with our best resources, experts said.

7 . Buying furniture is easier than ever. You can even order a new table and chairs online without ever leaving home. But did you ever think about how furniture is made? The process begins with trees but now researchers have found a better way: growing it in a lab instead of a forest. Instead of cutting down trees and adding to deforestation, Velasquez-Garcia said, “If you want a table, then you should just grow a table.”

The research group found a way to actually grow plant tissue (组织) — wood and fiber — in a lab that is similar to the way cultured meat is grown. While there is still a long way to go to actually grow a table, the team was able to grow structures from cells from zinnia leaves.

Making furniture and other items from biomaterials could eliminate cutting down trees in forests. “The way we get these materials hasn’t changed in centuries and is very inefficient,” said Velasquez-Garcia. “This is a real chance to avoid all that inefficiency.”

There are other benefits to using lab wood too. Lab grown wood can be handled to take on any shape — like 3 D printing — so it may be possible to build a table without glue or screwing parts together.

Beckwith, a mechanical engineering PhD student, was inspired by a visit to a farm to try to make land-use more efficient and environmentally sound. “That got me thinking: Can we be more strategic (战略上的) about what we’re getting out of our process? Can we get more yield for our inputs?” she told MIT News. “I wanted to find a more efficient way to use land and resources so that we could let more farmlands remain wild, or to remain lower production but allow for greater biodiversity.”

Today, the two largest uses of trees are to make wood products and paper. When new biomaterials become readily available, forests will lose their economic value and will be preserved for their environmental, health, and recreational value. These researchers, like Velasquez-Garcia, are speaking for the trees.

8 . “Life is a practice of flexible performances,” said a Canadian college senior who won a competition for her feeling on the theme “How COVID-19 changed your senior year”. The competition, sponsored by a nonprofit organization, invited high school and college seniors to record a video that answers the question. Participants included 379 students in 49 countries, but it was the words of a 19-year-old film student that stole judges’ hearts in the competition.

A student at John Abbott College, April Judd used humor and creative words to describe what life was like moving back in with her family and missing the chance to say goodbye to all her friends at the arts college. Her inspiring message details how students can use this experience to their advantage and “shape the universe into the future they want to see”. The terrible disease actually drove April to find the good aspects in what our world is going through. “In the chaos that our world is experiencing right now, it’s really easy to get caught up in the negative,” the senior said. “We are all truly in this together and are all able to change and mature so as to make this world a better place.”

Patricia Cogley, host of the competition, said, “For many college and high school seniors in the graduating class, the disease has obviously changed their final year. But, true to our mission, the competition gave the young around the world the opportunity to showcase their creativity and ideas for a better future, despite this challenging and unprecedented (前所未有的) time.”

Not just seniors, anyone can draw inspiration from April’s uplifting message, which won hers $1,000. Especially take note of her conclusion, which was delivered with a smile; “We got this —or, at least we will — eventually!”

We want you to show your families all the pathways in your area, so let's invite your local providers to attend an open evening at your school. Each will set up a small stall (摊位) in your playground or school field with a taster activity of the activities they offer. This evening will be an opportunity to get more of your children moving more often.

Things are getting back to normal and the easing of the lockdown restrictions has seen our after-school clubs coming back online. We are now running 10 clubs a week and it's clear to see how much the children have missed it. We'll be back to have around 40 clubs a week and we're in conversation with schools across the region.

Since September many of our partner schools have asked children to come in in PE kit on their PE days. It reduces the time spent getting changed and means the pupils can stay in their PE kits after all day, which gives schools a great opportunity to create "Active Days". PE lessons and Outdoor and Adventurous can be all in an action packed.

Our partner schools have access to tools which are there to help them maximise their impact. We suggest getting the most out of the PE Rewards section—award PE star of the Week and PE Class of the week certificates and run these as competitions throughout the school. The class which wins the PE Class of the week most often wins an active prize.

We're here to help, so please don't hesitate to get in touch to find out more.