Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Sports teaches us lessons about life.
It is obvious that most countries in the world have long had the tradition to emphasize the importance of doing sports. Although some people may only regard such kind of activities as a way to relax themselves, as far as I am concerned, sports is also one of indispensable means to teach us lessons about life. It teaches us teamwork, competition and the value to combine work and leisure.
One of the main reasons why I agree with the statement is that it enable us understand how to cooperate with others. It is well known that for many kinds of sports, like football, basketball and volleyball, people cannot finish it on their own. Only when do they realize the importance of working as a team with others, they can win the game. For instance, when our team first attended a basketball game in high school, we were considered as underdog because we neither taller nor more experienced than our opponents. However by excellent teamwork we finally got the first prize even though each one’s personal skill is not so well. From this game, I learn an important lesson that sometimes the key to success is how well you can cooperate with others.
In addition to learning teamwork, sports is of vital importance because it teaches us competition. We are now living in a world where competition is everywhere. No matter in schools or work places, as long as you want to perform well, a strong sense of competition should be taken into account. Thus sports just provides a stage to cultivate this habit. When doing sports, especially in a formal game, people always want to win. The more one takes part in such kind of activities, the better he/she will adjust to modern society.
Some people may argue that one may just want to get a pleasure by doing sports, how could that be considered as a “lesson”? However, what I want to say is that, learn how to relax themselves in today’s world is also significant. Just as what I mentioned above, the competition and pressure coming from all kinds of fields have turned to be more and more severe. People not only have to face physical unhealthy because of long and tired work, there are also psychological stresses. In such case, doing sports is meaningful to balance work and life. Playing football with your family or jogging while breath fresh air all excellent ways to relieve your stresses form working or studying.
To sum up, I totally agree with the statement that sports teaches us lessons about life. There are a variety of reasons such as we learn teamwork, competition and a balanced lifestyle from doing it.
TOEFL listening lectures: A university arts lecture on Greek drama