ĐỀ SỐ 15 - VŨ MAI PHƯƠNG

Is competition a good thing in sport? There can only be one answer to this question: yes! Of course, it feels great when you are scoring goals or your team wins the match. (34) _________ you don't have to be good at sport to benefit from it. Competing against others teaches you a lot of things about yourself and (35)
_________ people.
It makes you try harder and become more sociable. It teaches you to win and lose well and no longer be (36) _________ of trying new things - nothing is ever as scary as it seems. When you work hard to (37)
_________ your aims, you feel more confident, whether you are successful or not. Any negative feelings (38)
_________ you used to have about your ability to achieve whatever you want will disappear. Instead you'll start feeling proud of everything you've become.
(Adapted from Prepare)

So you're between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. What makes you happy? Some surveys say that most young people are happiest when they spend time with their family. Others say it's when they're with friends. Happiness is something different for each of us.
However, there are some things that can help improve our mood when we're feeling unhappy. Experts believe that exercise can make you a happier person - but how? Exercise releases chemicals in your brain that are related to a feeling of pleasure. In addition to this, exercise is also good for our physical health. So, if we know that we're doing something healthy, that should make us even happier!
There's another surprising idea to help make us happier. Although you might think that eating chocolate is bad for you, it seems that it is good to eat chocolate when we're feeling sad. It's also important to remember that we can't all be happy all the time. There are times in our lives when things are going well and we feel good. But we can also be happy for brief moments and we should value these as well. And when you feel sad, go for a run or eat some chocolate - you'll soon cheer up!
(Adapted from Solutions)

Right now, an important transformation has already begun and it looks like it will continue for years to come. China is a country where the population is in movement. At the moment, less than half the population of China lives in cities, but that situation is changing and it is changing fast.
Traditionally, the majority of the population of China has lived in quiet, rural areas. But industry is growing so fast that there is constant need for new workers in the city, in factories, construction sites, shops and offices. Until recently there was no need to build such enormous cities in China. But now there is an urgent need to build, to build big, tall and fast.
Few Chinese people live in detached or semi-detached houses. So, many large blocks of flats have appeared in the suburbs of these new Chinese megacities to accommodate the new arrivals. Day by day, these lively new megacities keep expanding. As cities increase in size, they eat up historic old buildings and invade the quiet villages nearby.
Luckily, China has already realised the impact that megacities could have on the environment. So they have started designing and building new 'eco-cities'. In these eco-cities there is an emphasis on clean, renewable energy. For example, in one eco-city engineers have just started work on the construction of the world's tallest and greenest skyscrapers, the Phoenix Towers. The idea of these stunning towers is to use solar power for electricity and to collect rainwater for the use of the residents. Hopefully, with plans like this China's megacities can be attractive, clean, modern and good for the environment.
(Adapted from Gateway)