Much-loved 100-Word-Story Competition
Our much-loved 100-Word-Story Competition is back!Enter for the chance to win prizes of up to £1, 000.
Rules and prizes
Please ensure that submissions are original，not previously published and exactly 100 words long( not including title). Don't forget to include your full name，address，email and phone number when filling in the form. We may use entries in all print and electronic media.
Terms and conditions:
There are three categories-—one for adults and two categories for schools: one for children aged12-18 and one for children under 12.
●In the adults category，the winner will receive £1 , 000 and one runner-up(第二名)will receive £250.
●In the 12-18s category，the winner will receive a £200 book voucher(代金券) or a Kindle Paperwhite and a £100 book voucher for their school，and the runner-up will receive a £100 book voucher.
●In the under-12 category，the winner will receive & 100 of book vouchers or a Kindle Paperwhite and £ 100 of book vouchers for their school，and the runner-up will receive a £50 book voucher.
Please submit your stories by 5 p. m. on January 5, 2024 either online or by post addressed to: Reader's Digest100 Word Story Competition
Warners Group Publications
West Street
BournePE10 9PH
The editorial team will pick a shortlist of entries，and the three best stories in each category will be posted online at readersdigest. co. uk on February 1，2024.
You can vote for your favourite，and the one with the most votes will win the top prize. Voting will close on February 29, 2024 and the winning entries will be published in our May 2024 issue， and posted -online on April 16，2024.
Enter your story below—good luck !
Mathea Allansmith isn't your typical grandmother，and she's the oldest woman in the world to have completed a marathon. She was 92 years 194 days old when she triumphantly crossed the finish line at the 2022 Honolulu Marathon，setting up the 'record for the oldest person to complete a marathon ( female ) .
Mathea，now 93 , of Koloa，Hawaii，USA，stays in shape all year round by running six days a week , no matter the weather. Come rain or shine，she covered 36 miles every week , even when she's on holiday. The retired doctor didn't take up running until she was 46 years old. After a colleague suggested running two miles per day.
"The Honolulu Marathon is my favourile marathon partly because they don't close the gate at a certain time which allows even the slowest runners to finish the race, "she said. " It's one of the best-executed races. Fantastic registration，set up and management makes it a joy to participate in. " Mathea，who doesn't allow her age to slow her down，says she is happiest when she's on the road. She enjoys running for miles and waving and saying hello to the people she passes. To stay in shape，Mathea，who runs year around，keeps a steady training routine. "I train year-round but increase the mileage starting 18 weeks before a marathon, " she said.
Mathea says it was her career as a physician that allowed her to understand how her body and mind respond to diet and exercise. "I see the direct connection between moving and health , "she said. It is important to reduce stress rather than ignoring it without a plan on how to do so in the longrun. Of course，exercise of any kind is a natural stress reducer. "
Mathea intends to keep running marathons for as long as she can and would like to attempt there cord titles for the oldest person to complete a half marathon ( female) and the oldest person to complete a 10K ( female) within the next year.
Back in 2019，three Chinese scientists were playfighting during a break from working in the Chongqing Province，China. One was kung-fu kicked into a rock , causing an opening in the rockface. Inside，a wonderful fossil(化石) lay undisturbed，preserved for millions of years.
The fossil was a jawed fish，some 439 million years old，and the findings from the Chongqing site，along with other fossil findings in nearby Guizhou province，have excited the science world，as they are 11 million years older than any fish fossil found before. It is a significant discovery because scientists have suspected that jaws evolved(进化) some 450 million years ago, but there had yet tobe any fossils that supported this theory. The oldest fossils with jaws found were 439 million years old.
In this discovery，though，there was a new species of shark that was 439 million years old，with a full jaw.
"All these things are still like dreams, "said Zhu Min, who led the research teams that recently published four papers on the discoveries. "Today we are staring at complete early fishes，11 million years earlier than the previous oldest finds. These are both the most exciting as well as the most challenging fossils I have had the privilege to work on. "
Some of the fish that were discovered were placoderms，an extinct class of fish that have hard plates that formed a shield around the head and trunk，while others were an ancient type of shark.
The scientists found the oldest-known teeth of any vertebrate(脊椎动物)，14 million years older than any previous findings，as well as two other shark descendants. China has been the site of numerous discoveries in recent years，including fossils of feathered dinosaurs，as well as the oldest known animals on Earth.
"The discovery of the Chongqing site is indeed an unbelievable miracle of fossil hunting, "Zhuadded. "Suddenly we realized we have found a jaw-dropping fossil site. We are now close to the core of solving the fishy tree of early jawed vertebrates. "
In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution the world's population，like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century，however，the number of people on the planet couldshrink(缩小) for the first time since the Black Death. The root cause is not an increase in deaths, but a sharp fall in births. Across much of the world the fertility rate， the average number of births per woman，is collapsing. Although the trend may be familiar，its extent and its consequences are not. Even as artificial intelligence( AI) leads to optimism in some quarters， the baby bust(婴儿荒) hangs over the future of the world economy.
The result is that in much of the world，the patter of tiny feet is being drowned out by the clatter of walking sticks. The prime examples of ageing countries are no longer just Japan and Italy but also include Brazil，Mexico and Thailand. By 2030 more than half the inhabitants of East and South-EastAsia will be over 40. As the old die and are not fully replaced，populations are likely to shrink. Outside Africa，the world's population is forecast to peak in the 2050s and end the century smaller than it is today. Even in Africa，the birth rate is falling fast.
Whatever some environmentalists say，a shrinking population creates problems. The world is not close to full and the economic difficulties resulting from fewer young people are many. The obvious one is that it is getting harder to support the world's pensioners(养老金). While the rich world currently has around three people between 20 and 64 years old for everyone over 65, by 2050 it will have less than two. The implications are higher taxes，later retirements，lower real returns for savers and, possibly，government budget crises.
Eventually，therefore, the world will have to make do with fewer youngsters—and perhaps with a shrinking population. With that in mind，recent advances in AI could not have come at a better time. Al economy might find it easy to support a greater number of retired people. Eventually AI may be able to generate ideas by itself，reducing the need for human intelligence. Such innovations will certainly be in high demand.
Have you ever thought of yourself as the main character of a heroic adventure? lt could be good for your health. Research suggests that imagining yourself on a hero's journey could help you achieve amore meaningful life. You might be familiar with the hero's journey. Mulan, and Harry Potter courageously facing their trials，all take this journey. How can you start imagining your life as a hero's journey? Here，experts share some strategies.
Keep a journal. Ask yourself: What makes you you? Describe your personality and core values. Think about events in your life that made you who you are today. Then consider the challenges that stand in your way，and which friends can help you on your journey.
Change the way you see obstacles. Going through a tough time? See your problems as challenges. A challenge is a chance to develop strength and be the hero of your own story.
Go on more heroic adventures. "We like people who have new experiences and grow from their challenges. "Roger says. lt can be simple，like walking a new route to school. Or it can be dramatic，like borrowing a bike and riding it to school.
Say you're facing a big challenge. Thinking of a favorite hero's story can help you have that eagle-eye view of what might be next for you, or what you should be paying attention to. Storiesbecome this map that you can always turn to. That can be reassuring. It reminds you that a new chapter almost certainly awaits you. ·
A. So seek out something new.
B. Writing down a few sentences can help.
C. When you need a boost，think of your heroes. D. It's a common storyline in books and movies.
E. Think of them as opportunities for growth and learning.
F. They return home to benefit their community with what they've learned. C. The way people tell their life story shapes how meaningful their lives feel.
For many young Canadians，planting tlrees is more than just a job. It's a way of 1 —and itcould be catching on，thanks to a popular2 by Leslie. While working for a logging company, the 29-year-old filmed herself using the 3 method that allowed her to plant 4, 545 trees in asingle day. She said that the summer work is incredibly 4 . Many college students are 5 totree planting as a summer job，for which they receive 13-27 cents per tree.
ln Canada，planting tree is not easy work ，according to Leslie. Not only is it6 tiring，butit also7 laborers to the bad weather.
"lIt could start the day off8 and then minutes later， it will just be raining or snowing. Younever know what to9 , " she described. "There were some days that we were planting through aheat 10 , so we had like 37-to-40-degree weather for several days straight and that was really11 . "
Leslie has also had to 12 being bitten by mosquitoes while walking through rocky places. Then，there's the threat of local wildlife becoming 13 . While Leslie herself has only seen mostlarge animals from a distance, a 21-year-old woman performing the same14 just survived a bearattack last week.
So far，Leslie has planted a total of 372, 290 trees in the past few years. 15 , she's stillnowhere near beating the Guinness World record. That honor 16 Kenny Chaplin，who onceplanted 15, 170 trees in 19 hours. After 35 years on the job，he says he'd 17 it to anyone. "I think every parent in Canada should be18 their kid out tree planting because it will takeyour child and it'll turn them into a worker, " he 19 . "They'll learn how to work, and they'll have20 . They'll have money in their pockets. "
As one of the three major drinks in the world，tea is also the most consumed drink after water on earth. Since tea trees ( discover) thousands of years ago，the drink has become intimately integrated with daily life and has developed intounique culture.
How could such a little leaf from nalture generate such great power?An ongoing exhibition( focus) on tea culture manages ( explore) the answer by offering visitors a comprehensive view of the drink.
The World of 'Tea: Special Exhibition of 'Tea Culture takes place at the Wu Men Exhibition Hallof the Palace Museum from September 2 to November 30 in Beijing. It displays 555 items( attach) to tea culture，many of are representative collections of 30 cultural institutions and museums at home and abroad.
Further more，it also provides insights into a cultural phenomenon's origins, evolution and ( remark) achievements while emphasizing how it has acted as a unifying thread connecting diverse regions and fostering the integration of various ethnic groups. Using tea as a medium, it displays the essence of Chinese tea culture， and also embodies the Chinese philosophical( pursue) of unity between heaven and humanity.
Wang Guangyao，director of the show and also a researcher at the Palace Museum，says，" We want our audience to ( complete) lose themselves in the show by settinginteraction spaces".
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文, 请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误, 每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加： 在缺词处加一个漏字符号(八), 并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除： 把多余的词用斜线(l)划掉。
修改： 在错的词下画一横线, 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。注意： 1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;2. 只允许修改10处, 多者(从第11处起)不计分。
There are many unforgettable person around us. But for me a most unforgettable one is my English teacher，Mr. Liu. That frequently brings back my memories is his great qualities. First，he gave us the greatest gift a good teacher could offer-an awakening of a passion with learning. He led us to the beautiful of the English language. Furthermore, l attracted by his lively wisdom. We students were always eager to attended his class because his lectures were humorous delivered. Although it has been nearly five years since I attended his last class，but he is the talk of our classmates，and I know part of her has already stayed in my heart.
