赤の六月 The Glimmer of A Dream

216 meters, what a towering height! The height of the world’s highest bungee jump has startled me. It gives me the shivers even to think of it. Its location, the Bloukran River Bridge, is in the heart of south Africa’s beautiful Garden route. The distance away from the metropolis can not stop the bungee-lover from conquering the crown jewel of their adventurous junkie life. Looking down from the bridge is always an adrenalin rush, however, you conquer all your biggest fear and take the ultimate leap of faith off the Bloukran River Bridge, and you are stuck in temporary limbo but rise again.

Bungee jumping might seem frightening. But it is a very safe activity if you go to a well-established bungee jump company. People who work for bungee operators usually have a great deal of training and experience. Be cautious and make sure that every protection equipments are in order, and then jump off, you may have a brand-new version of life.

We all want to make a difference and we all want to overcome the biggest fear, ourselves. Bungee Jumping would be a force for good. It would be an inspiration for people of all walks.

I’ve always learnt in life that you become stronger by overcoming your fears. Do what you fear most and you overcome fear. Challenge yourself and you become stronger. Now I believe there is an opportunity to do a lot of good with this extreme sport. You stretches the limits of life, and the feeling of the build-up, the freefall, the numbness, the ground rush, the horror and the joy is unlike any humans were ever meant to experience in life. I hope that I can take my courage and have a try in my lifetime. That would be an exciting and precious experience.

Access: http://www.faceadrenalin.com/

Do you have courage to pursue your dream? If you doubt your abilities, perhaps you can take inspiration from the story of an old man named Heinz Stücke, the Guinness Book of Records holder, who has traveled the globe by bicycle for 40 years. His ultimate biking tour began in 1962,he released his kick stand and set forth from his home of Hovelhof, Germany. Heinz Stucke has circled the globe ten times or more, his personal record was 300 kilometers in 12 hours while crossing the Syrian desert with a tailwind.

It is really a hard way. Along the way, he’s been shot at, robbed, arrested, and celebrated, embraced and admired in every corner of the planet. But Stucke rarely sticks around for the accolades. “No matter how bad things get,” he says, “you just have to continue up the road, where everything is different. That’s what I like most. It’s the unknown around the corner that turns my wheel.” Stucke believes that every human endeavor is irrelevant in some ways. It’s up to each individual to achieve their own objectives.

 The Bikeman just keeps rolling, like a migratory bird chasing the sunshine; like a timeless wanderer seeking everlasting freedom. Wealth I ask not, all I ask, the heaven above ,and the road below…

Heinz Stücke can fulfill his dream on bicycle, why can’t we? He can create his epic Journeys, Why can’t we? The world is before us; strong and content we travel the open road. The earth, that is sufficient.

 ”Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road，
     Healthy, free, the world before me，
       The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
         Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune，
           Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing. ”
                                                                                      — Walt Whitman
                                                                                  Song of the Open Road

Accessed: http://www.gluckman.com/Bikeman.html

This is a piece of science news about how running made us human. Humans evolved from ape-like ancestors because they needed to run long distances – perhaps to hunt animals, and the ability to run shaped our anatomy, making us look like we do today. However, when it comes to endurance running, I would like to say that I’m not fit  in this event despite  so many benefit we can derive from.

Long-distance running, a kind of challenging sports event, has always been my nightmare. My fear of  long-distance running dates back to when I was in middle school. In our PE class, the teacher told us that we needed to run 800m within 5minutes in oder to pass the exam. OMG!! I had never never run that far before. I had no choice but to run. Anyway, I tried my best. Our racetrack was 200 metres at one time, and after I had run one lap, I felt exhausted. I had to slow my pace but itt didn’t make me feel any better. I could not control my breath and inhaled hard. After I had run the second lap, I had no more strength. So for the next two laps I had almost walked all the way. It is obviously that I did not pass the exam and was the last one to come to the end line. The first long-distance  running experience  made me feel terrible. However, to make things even worse, I was tortured by the same nightmare once again when I entered BSU.  Which made it difference was that I passed the exam with courage and day-by-day practice. Now, Long-distance running is still a nightmare to me. If it is not necessary, I won’t try it any more.
Frankly speaking, I do admire those athletes who choose Long-distance running as thier sports career. I’m wondering that is there any difficulty the  long-distance runners can’t overcome? They possess the willpower and endurance that our ordinary persons lack. They keep on running and running in order to reach thier goals. They set thier own tempo in the race as well as in life.  They can be the real-life model for us to follow, with the qualites they own we can be airborne through the cloud and realize our dreams and never be afraid.
Keep on running forward, never lose your faith~

Access: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041123163757.htm

Recently, I’ve read an article British Sports History: The Present and the Future. As a student major in sports English, I feel that to learn a culture or a society through its sports is a good way.

Everyone will have their own definitions about what sport means to them. Camaraderie, excitement, and competition, those are the words which closely associate with sport. However, no one can deny the contribution of sport to growing up. We have valued learning how to handle adversity and loss; how to accept embarrassing failure. “The truth is that in life, you win some, and you lose some. Growing up means learning how to handle both with grace.” That is what Scott Johnson remarked when he looks back his good old days in varsity. The strength of sport is not only shown on individuals but also on culture and society. As the kingdom of sports creation, Britain has an astounding range of sports and a rich sports history. Therefore, it is worthwhile for us to study the topic of British sports.

Britain has a long history of sports, having figured prominently in their world-wide development. Many sports - for example football, golf, rugby, lawn tennis, horse racing and cricket - originated or were first popularized in Britain. About 29 million people over the age of 16 in Britain regularly take part in sport or exercise. Major British sporting events include the Football Association Cup Final, the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the Open Golf championship and the Grand National (horse racing), the Six Nations (England, Scotland, Wales, Republic of Ireland, France and Italy) rugby union tournament, and the Rugby World Cup.

It is not until after the Norman conquest of 1066 that we have regular, written records of sporting activity in Britain. Historians in Britain have shown clearly that sport was an active agent of British society and cultural life. Sports have made a special contribution to the study of social identities. Going back many years, opportunities for sport in Britain were prominent in the upper-class. In the 19th century, team sports such as cricket was a kind of “snob” game played by boys in the elite public schools and universities. Through sport, we can grasp what people belonged to and understand their social status in Britain. One of the leading UK political historians Peter Hennessy recently argued that “sport is immensely important to any series attempt to reconstruct a nation’s collective life in any period since the mid-to-late 19th century.” That shows how important a role sport plays in British history. Sport used to be a brutal, lawless affair without rules. But the Victorians changed all that. During the Victorian period people saw a drive towards a more civilized and controlled society. In sport this turned out to be a desire for rules and regulations, changing the emphasis from manly physical pursuits to moral and spiritual exercises with disciplines and a spirit of fair play. For instance, cricket became associated with a set of moral values, in particular the idea of “fair play” which characterized British government and eventually represented a kind of ideology throughout the late Victorian Empire.Sport is part of the fabric of British lives. Although we have plenty of evidence show that William I and his successors all valued the time they were able to dedicate to hunting and hawking, we know comparatively little of what the simple folks would do with their free time. As the end of the sixteenth century approached, more and more individuals participated in recreational activities. Sports and games had become increasingly woven into the fabric of the simple person’s day-to-day existence.

There are many other popular pastimes in Britain but none that draws so many attentions and makes people indulge so many passions into it. Football, the most followed sport in Britain is a good example. Bill Shankley, manager of Liverpool football club, once said “Football is not a matter of life and death. It’s more important than that.” In Britain, it is a fever, a passion and a lifetime hobby. Fans will spend all of their free time reading newspapers, team websites for any sort of news about their teams such as injuries, transfers, etc. Thus Eentrepreneurs have begun to realize that there is money to be made from the common persons’ leisure time. For brits, Having a drink at the local pub while watching football games on the TV becomes the most popular way of relaxing. However, the game of football has been associated with gambling and violence since its beginnings in 13th century England. Football Hooliganism has been called the ‘English Disease’ on many occasions. It is often reported in the media as resulting from excessive alcohol consumption.

Sport is also a part of landscape in Britain, through the depictions of the press and the media, more and more sport lovers in the world get access to know this beautiful nation. There is no doubt that sport is Britain’s culture ambassador. Manchester, Liverpool, and Arsenal all become the sounding names in the world with the help of football clubs. The world - famous Wimbledon grass court and the world-class golf courses such as St Andrews, Royal Birkdale (www.royalbirkdale.com/) attracts tourists from all over the world.

Sport has always been an indispensable theme in Britain. It mirrors Britain’s past, and possesses the ability to shape and influence social identities and cultures. It serves to put into outlook the resilience of man’s and woman’s longing to play in the face of social, political and economic upheavals. In addition, being the pioneers in popular sports, the British have contributed a lot to sport and created a better world for sport-lovers.

Access:http://www.swan.ac.uk/history/staff/johnes/stirling.pdf