I returned home the other night, tired. My husband asked me how my evening was, “Great.” I told him. I had spent 90 minutes in a gym with 10 Ping-Pong tables and all kinds of players, all playing a little ball over the net. By 9 pm, I was excited, tired, satisfied. I had beaten two young men half my age and lost battles against other competitors. To an observer, the night was common. To me, it was a lucky thing that I hadn't expected.

    I had taken up Ping-Pong during college, and in my 30s took more advanced lessons. However, a serious accident hurt my leg, which made me unable to take exercise. Months later, I tried to play Ping-Pong but my leg pained for a week. I put the game out of my mind.

When I was 53, one day my bad leg was working a little bit better. Could Ping-Pong be possible for me, now—in my condition, at my age? I tried to play Ping-Pong again

    Ping-Pong is a sport which requires endurance(耐力). Players need quick foot work and upper body movements to return balls, requiring faster response time than tennis.

    Playing Ping-Pong offers benefits for the brain. A study of 164 women aged 60 and older showed that Ping-Pong improved cognitive(认知)function more than dancing, walking or gymnastics. “The great thing about our sport is that it can be played by anyone,” said Jimmy Butler, a four-time national USA Table Tennis Association winner. “I see 90-year-olds and 10-year-olds.”

    Years passed and my endurance improved. People started to praise my shots. I won a game. Then I won agin. These days, I feel wonderful, I believe this sport is the fountain (源泉)of youth.

    The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the branches of an old tree, with good reason to frown, for the world was intended to drag me down. At this time, a boy approached me. He stood right before me, and said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"

    In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight, with its petals(花瓣)all worn. Wanting him to take his flower and go off to play, I faked a small smile and then turned to the other side.

    But instead of leaving, he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and declared, "It really smells pretty and it's beautiful, too. That's why I picked it. Here, it's for you."

    The flower before me was dying or dead. But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave .So I reached for the flower, and replied, Just what I need.

    But instead of placing the flower in my hand, he held it in mid-air. It was then that I noticed that the boy was blind.

    I heard my voice quiver(轻微颤抖) and at the same time my tears shone like the sun. As I thanked him for picking the very best one, he smiled and said, "you're welcome." And then he ran off to play, unaware of the impact he'd had on me.

    I sat there and wondered how he managed to see a self-pitying woman beneath an old tree. Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.

    Through the eyes of the blind boy, I could see the problem was not with the world; the problem was me. And for all of those times I had been blind. From now on I vowed to see beauty and appreciate every second that's mine. Then I held the flower up to my nose and breathed its fragrance and smiled as that young boy.

    Having experienced a shocking electrical accident, which caused him to become both blind and deaf, James Franco's world became completely dark and quiet for almost ten years. The loss of sight and hearing threw him into such sorrow that he tried a few times to put an end to his life. His family, especially his wife, did their best to tend and comfort him and finally he regained the will to live.

    One hot summer afternoon, he was taking a walk with a stick near his house when a thunderstorm started all at once. He stood under a large tree to avoid getting wet, but he was struck by the lightning. Witnesses thought he was dead but he woke up 20 minutes later, lying face down in muddy water. He was trembling badly, but when he opened his eyes, he could hardly believe what he saw: a tree and muddy road. When Mrs. Franco came running up to him, shouting to their neighbors to call for help, he could see her and hear her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.

    The news of James regaining his sight and hearing quickly spread and many doctors came to examine him. Most of them said that he regained his sight and hearing from the shock he got from the lightning. However, none of them could give a compellent answer as to why this should happen. The only reasonable explanation given by one doctor was that, since James lost his sight and hearing as a result of a sudden shock, perhaps, the only way for him to regain them was another sudden shock.

    Shakespeare's Birthplace and Exhibition of Shakespeare's World

    Welcome to the world-famous house where William Shakespeare was born in l564 and where he grew up. The property (房产) remained in the ownership of Shakespeare's family until 1806. The House has welcomed visitors travelling from all over the world, for over 250 years.

    Enter through the Visitors' Centre and see the highly-praised exhibition Shakespeare's World, a lively and full introduction to the life and work of Shakespeare.

    Stand in the rooms where Shakespeare grew up.

    Discover examples of furniture and needlework from Shakespeare's period.

    Enjoy the traditional English garden, planted with trees and flowers mentioned in the poet's works.

    The Birthplace is within easy walking distance of all the car parks shown on the map; nearest is Windsor Street (3 minutes' walk).

    The House may present difficulties but the Visitors' Centre, its exhibition, and the garden are accessible (可进入的) to wheelchair users

    The Shakespeare Coffee House (opposite the Birthplace).

    Scientists Diego Kersting and Cristina Linares have found that some coral species are able to recover from harmful warming events through a unique survival strategy (策略)—known as "rejuvenescence" (新生)—among corals in the Mediterranean Sea. The findings represent some rare good news for corals around the world, which are facing numerous severe threats—most notably, climate change.

    "The main threats are climate change, overfishing, pollution and coastal urbanization," Kersting said. "But currently, climate change is probably the one causing the most coral cover declines. Warming stresses corals up to a point that may cause death. Some corals bleach (白化) before dying. Other corals do not bleach but die directly." He went on, "Our findings are significant because this survival strategy was only known from fossil corals that existed hundreds of millions of years ago. It is the first time that it has been found in a living coral. Thanks to our findings, we know now that some corals are able to recover, but unfortunately this is not enough in the current climate change context."

    For their research, Kersting and Linares monitored 243 colonies of the endangered reef-building coral Cladocoracaespitosa in Spain's Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve over 16 years, starting in 2002. The monitoring revealed that Cladocoracaespitosa in the Mediterranean uses rejuvenescence to cope with warming events. This process involves the polyps — or the individual coral animals in a colony—shrinking inward and abandoning their skeletons (骨骼) during warm periods, before rejuvenating at a later point. "What happens is that some polyps in a coral colony—sometimes just one— reduces completely its dimensions and partially retreats from its skeleton," Kersting said. "Once the stressful event is over, the shrunken or rejuvenated polyp recovers its size and builds up a new skeleton. Eventually, it begins to reproduce itself through budding and begins to cover the dead colony surfaces."

    He continued, "The results were very surprising because I started to observe colonies that were dead years ago, that were showing living parts many years after their death."

Exploring nature allows us to catch sight of rare animals and come across special places of beauty. Of course, none of this would be possible {#blank#}1{#/blank#} protected nature areas. This is {#blank#}2{#/blank#} national parks are so important. A few national parks allow things like hotels and recreation areas {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (construct) within them, but most parks do not allow any development at all. 

The very first national park {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (be)also one of the most famous in the world—Yellowstone, in the western USA. Nineteenth-century explorers {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (amaze) by what they saw in Yellowstone. Apart from the beautiful mountains, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (rush) rivers, and tall waterfalls, there were geysers, which sent boiling water as high as 91 meters into the air. Then there were the hot springs, as colourful as rainbows. These explorers wanted to protect the natural {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (feature) of the area from development so that future generations could enjoy the area. And so, in 1872, Yellowstone was established as {#blank#}8{#/blank#} national park. Today, around four million people a year visit it. Many come hoping to see wildlife, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} is no longer as common in the American West as it once was. Everyone comes to see the geysers, {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(especial) Old Faithful, which sits near the centre of the park, and sends 95. 6 ℃ water up to 56 metres into the air every 44 to 125 minutes.