Magic Ping Pong



乒乓球是中国的国球, 中国的乒乓球运动在近年的大赛中战绩显赫. 在刚结束的第48届世锦赛上, 中国队包揽了五项冠军, 摘取了四枚银牌. 尽管国际乒联为缩小选手间的实力差距, 增加比赛的对抗性和偶然性, 使比赛更具悬念, 对乒乓球比赛的规则做了很大修改, 如"小球改大球"、"21分制改11分制"、"无遮挡发球"等, 中国乒乓球队依然锐不可挡.

History of Table Tennis

Table Tennis or Ping Pong most likely began as a hobby in England towards the end of the 1800′s. Dining-room tables and balls of cork made up some of the early equipment that was used. These early pioneers may have referred to their sport as gossima, flim-flam, or ping-pong. Around the turn of the century, the game underwent a few changes in England. One person introduced a celluloid ball to the game, while another added pimpled rubber to the wooden paddle. The recreational game lost some of its popularity until various groups around Europe revived it as "table tennis" in the 1920s. The International Table Tennis Association (ITTF) was formed in 1926. The sport soon spread to Japan and other Asian nations. The Japanese dominated the sport for much of the 50s and 60s, however the Chinese soon closed the gap. China alone dominated the sport for much of the 60′s and 70′s, but after Table Tennis became an Olympic event in 1988, other nations such as Sweden and South Korea have joined the top ranks.

 

 

Victory or not
By Shen Yang



The 48th World Table Tennis Championships ended on May 6, 2005 in Shanghai, in which China swept all five gold medals and 4 silver medals. Certainly, the China table tennis team had an overwhelming success. But facing this result, fans had two kinds of quite different views.

It's very exciting that the Chinese team had a great victory, which is one kind of view held in many fans' hearts. They thought all the fans should enjoy the success of the Chinese team. Winning all the gold medals is a tough job. Facing players from European countries and other Asian countries, Chinese players played bravely. Their victory showed the world that the China table tennis team was very strong and capable. Of all world sports, table tennis is one of the few items that China has absolutely strength. The China table tennis team won many honors for our motherland in recent years. By the way, fans thought winning all the gold medals was not a shame, but an honor. "The Brazilians and the Americans do not feel shamed about their domination in soccer and basketball. Why should we feel shamed to the success made by our table tennis team." "Go ahead China table tennis team, we hope you will perform well in the future, especially in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," many fans hoped.



Though many other fans felt happy that the Chinese team won all the medals, they were worried about the future of this event. They feared that the International Table Tennis Association will revise the rules to limit the development of Chinese players. Xu Yansheng, former chairmen of the China Table Tennis Association, said in an interview that in a sense winning all the gold medals once again was not good news. He added if there were no rivals to the Chinese players in other nations, the position of this event in the world sports field would be under challenge. What's more, some complained there was no suspense on championships because four of the five finals were played between Chinese players. If the rivals were strong enough to compete with Chinese players in the finals, this event would be more exciting. They hoped more and more great players like Waldner and Boll will appear in other countries.



In my opinion, winning all the gold medals is definitely good news. We should appreciate the great achievements made by Chinese players. Winning the championship is a dream of most athletes. No pain, no gain. Their hard training and brave spirit deserved what they had got. Thanks to their excellent performances, table tennis now is very popular in China. We should not fear revising rules by ITTA. They have already done that. From 21 points to 11 points a game, from a small ball to a big one and so on, but it had little impact on the China Table Tennis Team. At the same time I agree we have a duty to help improve the skill of foreign players and to popularize table tennis all over the world. Nowadays table tennis is becoming an influential event in some European countries, such as Sweden, Germany and Denmark, and some other Asian countries, such as South Korea and Japan. But not too many people engage in this event in South and North America, Africa and Australia. So there is still a long way to go to make table tennis popular in the whole world, especially in the three continents mentioned above.

 

 

Health garden

Take new fat to burn old fat
摄取适量脂肪减肥
Diets too low in fat may not be helpful to lose fat, and eating at least small amounts of dietary fats might be a better way to fat-burning. Scientists experimented on mice to discover "new" fat sparks a cascade of gene activity in the liver necessary for healthy blood levels of sugar, cholesterol and other fats. The results are further evidence that extreme diets often aren't the ticket to a lean body, and a balanced diet should include an adequate source of fat.



Mothers pregnant with boys may be less forgetful
怀女孩孕妇更健忘
Researchers suggested that mothers pregnant with boys may be less forgetful than those carrying girls. They found evidence that women who gave birth to boys consistently outperformed moms of girls in tests that specifically taxed memory in the areas of listening, computational and visualization skills.



Obesity in middle age linked to later dementia
中年肥胖可致后期痴呆
Obesity, particularly in middle-aged women, increases the risk developing dementia later in life. People who were obese in mid-life are 74 percent more likely to develop dementia, while overweight people are 35 percent more likely to develop dementia compared to those with normal weight. Excess weight is also linked to higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and psychological problems.

Surgery better for early prostate cancer
早期前列腺癌症手术为宜
Researchers have found that Men under 65 who undergo prostate surgery have higher long-term survival rates than those who are put under the watchful waiting group. But the findings may not apply to everyone. The researchers found evidence that men of 65 and older are not harmed by being in the watchful waiting group. Prostate cancer is the second-most common type of cancer among American men, after skin cancer.



Month of birth affects menopause age
出生月份影响绝经期
Researchers have discovered that a woman's month of birth can affect the age when menopause begins. The researchers found women born in October reached the menopause at age 50 and 3 months, compared to 48 years and 9 months for those born in March after taking in account factors such as smoking, weight and age at puberty, which can affect menopause. The findings support the theory that environmental factors before birth have an impact on the baby's adult life.



Vocabulary
visulization 想像
outperform 胜过
dementia 痴呆
prostate 前列腺