【正文】 princess or prince.(210 words)5 The Metric SystemPeople all over the world use grams, kilograms (kilos), meters, and liters. These are all ways to measure things. They are all part of the metric system.During the French Revolution (17891799) against the king, the revolutionary government started the metric system. Before that, every part of France had a different system for measuring things. Also, cloth makers measured cloth with one system. Jewelers used another system. Carpenters used another. Other countries used different systems. The revolutionary government wanted one scientific system of measurement. They asked a group of scientists and mathematicians to invent a system.The mathematicians and scientists decided to use the numbers ten, hundred, and thousand for their system.Next, they had to decide on a natural length. They chose one tenmillionth (1/ 10,000,000) of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. They called this distance the meter. Then they chose the gram for weighing things. A cubic centimeter of water weighs 1 gram.Mathematicians and scientists worked for 20 years until they finally had a plete measuring system. The biggest problem was measuring the meter.The metric system was a wonderful gift to the world. There are only a few countries that don39。t use it. The United States is one. The metric system is truly an international system.(214 words)6 Thai BoxingBoxing is popular in many countries. Two fighters wear boxing gloves on their hands. The boxers hit each other until one is knocked out or until the final bell rings.Each part of the fight is three minutes long. It is called a round.Thai boxing is different.The boxing match begins with music. Then the two fighters kneel and pray to God. Next, they do a slow dance that copies the movements of Thai boxing. During this dance, each fighter tries to show the other that he is best.Then the fight begins. In Thai boxing, the fighters can kick with their feet and hit each other with their elbows and knees. Of course, they hit with their hands, too.Each round is three minutes long. Then the boxers have a twominute rest. Most boxers can fight only five rounds because this kind of fighting is very difficult.Thai boxing began over 500 years ago. If a soldier lost his weapons in a battle, he needed to fight with just his body. The soldiers learned how to use all the parts of their bodies. In 1560, the Burmese army captured Naresuen, the King of Thailand, in a war. King Naresuen was a very good boxer. He won his freedom from Burma by defeating all the best Burmese fighters. When he returned to Thailand, his people were very proud of him. Thai boxing became a popular sport.(237 words)7 Sumo WrestlingSumo wrestling is a national sport in Japan. Every year there are six tournaments, and millions of Japanese watch them on television. A tournament is a series of matches.Sumo is almost as old as the nation of Japan itself. Stories say that there was sumo wrestling over 2,000 years ago. There are written records of national sumo tournaments in the 8th century.In many sports, athletes are thin and can move very quickly. However, sumo wrestlers weigh from 100 to 160 kilos (kilograms). One famous wrestler weighed 195kilos. Sumo wrestlers do not move quickly, and sumo wrestling is a very slow sport.Sumo wrestlers start training when they are boys. They exercise to make their bodies strong. They also eat a lot.They wrestle in a round ring with a sand floor. A wrestler loses the match if he leaves the ring. He is also the loser if any part of his body except his feet touches the floor. Each wrestler tries to push the other down on the floor or out of the ring.Sometimes one wrestler just steps aside when the other wrestler rushes toward him.Then, the wrestler who is rushing falls down or moves out of the ring.Sumo is not very popular in other countries, but the Japanese think that it is a very exciting sport.(223 words)8 Tarahumara Foot RacesThe Tarahumara live in the mountains in the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico. This is an area of high mountains and deep tropical valleys. It sometimes snows in the mountains in winter. There are not many roads.The Tarahumara walk wherever they need to go. They carry heavy baskets on their backs. Perhaps this is why the Tarahumara can run many kilometers without getting tired. They are excellent runners, and they like to organize races.When the men race, they kick a wooden ball ahead of them while they run. Before they start racing, they plan where and how long they will run. They might run just a few minutes, or they might run for several hours. Sometimes they run in teams, and sometimes each person runs as an individual.The women39。s races are similar except that the women do not kick a ball. They throw a wooden hoop in front of them with a stick. A hoop is a ring, or a circle.The Tarahumara play other games and sports. However, they are famous because they can run so fast and so far. (185 words)9 Olympic SportsThe first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece, in the year 1896.Athletes from only 13 countries participated in the Games that year. They peted in 43 different events in just 9 sports (track and field, swimming, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, tennis, weight lifting, and wrestling). In 2004, the summer Olympic Games took place once again in Athens, Greece. This time athletes from 202 countries peted in 300 events in 28 sports.Only five sports have been in every Olympic Games. They are track and field, swimming, fencing, cycling, and gymnastics. Other sports e and go in the Olympic Games. For example, tennis was an Olympic sport from 1896 until 1924.Then it disappeared from the Olympics until 1988. Baseball, badminton, and taekwondo are more recent additions to the Olympic Games.It is the job of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add and remove sports from the Olympic Games. A sport ha