Word of the Day Writing Competition

    Days are getting colder, and everyone is slowly backing to the warm comfort of their homes. It's the best opportunity to make good use of the quietness and peace of the season by taking pen and paper(or a computer) out to write.

OxfordWords of Oxford University Press(OUP) is calling all aspiring(有抱负的) authors out there to take part in our writing competition. What we're looking for are imaginative(富有想象力的) short stories—not more than 500 words—that include every Word of the Day (WOTD) from November.

    Each entry will be carefully considered by the OxfordWords team before deciding on a winner. The best storyteller will be given a year's fee to OxfordDictionaries.com, as well as ￡50 worth of OUP books, and have his or her piece published on that website.

    Before you get started, please make sure you're read our terms and conditions. Entries can be submitted(递交) through the entry form, or posted into the comment section. Closing date for the competition is 5th January 2015.

    And finally, for inspiration, have a look at the charming short story that gives us the idea for this competition, written by a fellow Oxford Dictionaries team member, and including all thirty one Words of the Day from October.

    Find out more about our Word of the Day service and sign up to receive the words via email, or on Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    A Chinese team claimed victory at an international e-sports（电子竞技）championship held in Paris on Sunday.

    Royal Never Give Up beat South Korean team Dragon X 3-1 to lift the crown at the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational 2018. It marked the first time in 1,106 days that a South Korean team had been defeated by a team from elsewhere at a major international League of Legends tournament（锦标赛）.

    League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena video game that was launched in 2009 and rapidly built a following among members of the competitive gaming community. The tournament in Paris featured teams from 13 countries and regions competing for cash and a place in the global rankings.

    Royal Never Give Up entered the contest fresh from their victory at the spring season of the Tencent League of Legends Pro League, the top level of China's professional League of Legends league system. Their win in Paris was largely owing to star player Jian Zihao, aka Uzi. “I've been trying to win this title for six years now,” Jian said on stage following the victory. “I can't imagine I'm standing here with this trophy. I'm super excited for this moment.” Royal Never Give Up's victory has boosted confidence in China's ability to win at major international e-sports events.

    E-sports' popularity has ballooned in recent years, with the International Olympic Committee scheduled to meet in July to further discuss the possibility of including e-sports in future Olympic Games. According to Penguin Intelligence's 2017 China Game Industry Report, released in June, the annual market value of China's e-sports sector reached 20 billion yuan ($3.13 billion) in 2016, generated by gamers' spending, copyright distribution, merchandising and e-commerce. The number of registered online gamers jumped to 220 million in 2017 from 170 million the year before.

    Gifts. com provides more than just ideas. Sure, our unique (独特的) and unforgettable gift suggestions are a big part of why people love us, but we also offer endless ideas and tools to make every day a reason to celebrate. Here are our Great Christmas Gift Ideas:

    Christmas Gifts for Parents

    You love your parents like no one else, and you want to give them something special for Christmas. But what would make their holiday bright? Finding them the perfect Christmas gift will be easy this year, with all our top picks in one place.

    Christmas Gifts for Parents Under $45

    Holiday Gift Baskets

    The gift basket is a great way to give a gift to a group. Our gift basket ideas come from all the top stores online, so you can easily find everything from fruit gift baskets to wine gift baskets in one place.

    Gift Baskets Under $50

    Ideas for Teens

    Trying to find the right gift for a teen? Teens can be a challenge (挑战). What do they want? What could they use? They're all unique, but we think we've got something for them, even though they're a special group that are hard to deal with.

    Top Picks for Teens Under $20

    The Secret Santa Exchange (交换)

    The Secret Santa is a great way to exchange gifts in the office, when it's often impossible to give everyone a present. We've got an office guide right here to help you find proper gifts for the workplace. And then there's always the gift basket, with things that are sure to please everyone in the office.

    Business Gifts Under $25

    Thanks to exchange programmes an increasing number of young students are following educational courses in foreign countries. The Erasmus Programme, which started in 1987, is a European Union student exchange programme. It provides opportunities for young people from Europe to study in a foreign country for shot An intercontinental version of the programme, known as Erasmus Mundus, has existed since 2003, providing non-Europeans the opportunity to study in Europe.

    About one in ten video game players shows signs of addictive behavior that could have negative effects on their family, friends and school work, according to a new study conducted in New York.

    Researchers at Iowa State University(ISU) and the National Institute on Media and the Family found that some gamers show at least six symptoms of gambling addiction such as lying to family and friends about how much they play games, using the games to escape their problems and becoming restless when they stop playing.

    They may also skip homework to play video games or spend too much time playing games and do poorly in school. "While the medical community currently does not recognize video game addiction as mental disorder, hopefully this study will be one of many that allow us to have an educated conversation on the positive and negative effects of video games," said Dr. Douglas Gentile, an assistant professor of psychology at ISU.

    Dr. David Walsh, the president of the National Institute on Media and the Family which tries to reduce the harm of media on the health and development of children and families, said the findings are a wake-up call." This study gives everyone a better idea of the problem," he explained.

    The researchers, who studied 1,178 American children and teenagers, aged 8 to 18, found some displayed at least 6 of 11 symptoms of pathological (病态的) gambling as stated by the American Psychiatric Association. Addicted gamers played video games 24 hours a week, twice as much as casual gamers. Some addicted gamers even steal to support their habit, according to the findings that will be published in the journal Psychological Science.

    While video games can be fun and entertaining, some kids are getting trouble. "I continue to hear from families who are concerned about their kids' gaming habits. Not only do we need to focus on identifying the problem, but we need to find ways to help families prevent and treat gaming addiction.

    Downloading music over the Internet is pretty common among high school and college students. However, when students download and share copyrighted music without permission, they are against the law.

    A survey of young people's music ownership has found that teenagers and college students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players．Half of those surveyed share all the music on their hard drive (硬盘), enabling others to copy hundreds of songs at any one time. Some students were found to have randomly linked their personal blogs to music sites, so as to allow free trial listening of copyrighted songs for blog visitors, or adopted some of the songs as the background music for their blogs. Such practices may be easy and free, but there are consequences.

    Sandra Dowd, a student of Central Michigan University, was fined US $7,500 for downloading 501 files from Lime Wire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Sandra claimed that she was unaware that her downloads were illegal until she was contacted by authorities. Similarly, Mike Lewinski paid US $4,000 to settle a lawsuit（起诉）against him for copyright violation (违反). Mike expressed shock and couldn't believe that this was happening to him. "I just wanted to save some money and I always thought the threat was just a scare tactic(战术)." "You know, everyone does it," added Mike.

    The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the organization that files lawsuits against illegal downloaders, states that suing (控告) students was by no means their first choice. Unfortunately, without the threat of consequences, students are just not changing their behavior. Education alone is not enough to stop the extraordinary growth of the illegal downloading practice.