1 . Last Friday a storm swept through two villages in the New Territories, destroying (摧毁) fourteen homes. Seven others were so badly damaged (破坏) that their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows or broken roofs. One person was killed, several were badly hurt and taken to hospital, and a number of other people received smaller hurt. Altogether over two hundred people were homeless after the storm.

A farmer, Mr. Tan, said that the storm began early in the morning and lasted for over an hour.

“I was eating with my wife and children,” he said, “When we heard a loud noise. A few minutes later our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best to climb out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him, safe but very frightened.”

Mrs. Woo Mei Fong said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once with her children.

“There was no time to take anything,” she said, “A few minutes later, the roof came down.”

Soldiers helped to take people out of the flooded (水淹的) area and the welfare department (福利机构) brought them food, clothes and shelter.

3 . At about 6 p. m. on Saturday, a forest fire broke out in a village in Mu Li, Liangshan. The local government acted quickly and 689 people were sent to put out the fire. Fire groups were fighting the fire on Sunday when a sudden change of wind direction caused “a huge fireball”. 27 firefighters and 3 locals lost their lives. Most of the firefighters were in their twenties and two of them were less than twenty, though several were older. Their death touched our hearts all over China. There is enough reason to regard them as heroes. President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and many other leaders expressed condolence to the heroes’ families and friends.

We should remember all the heroes and their spirit, bravery showed in fighting the fire. As the old saying goes: a nation is lost without its memories. Forest fires are common in spring. Rules to prevent fires have come out in Liangshan. Many experts believe there are some reasons for forest fires. The first reason is weather change. Warmer and drier weather leads to dangerous fire conditions. Next, lightning is another reason. Dry grass and trees easily catch fire. Finally, hot winds add to the possibility of forest fires. The wind spreads a fire quickly. However, 90% of forest fires are caused by humans, according to a report. Forest fires can burn at over 900 ℃ and reach heights of more than 50 meters. Forest fires can move at speeds of up to 23 kilometers an hour, burning everything—trees, brush, homes, even people... Experts remind people to be careful during the holiday of Qingming, known as Tomb Sweeping Day. Millions of people travel to their homes during the holiday, so the risks of fires in mountains are high.

In order to keep the heart-broken lesson in mind, we should stop fires from happening again.

4 . People all are looking for ways to save energy and natural resources（资源）to protect our environment. Here’s an example of saving water.

A doctor called Jack Todd, is very interested in cleaning water as well as saving money, so he has tried many ways, and in the end he developed a small and affordable system to clean waste water—the Living Machine. The machine can clean waste water in our home and in our business.

The machine can clean waste water. First, the waste water goes into a big plastic tank. In the tank, the wastes start to break down. Second, a few days later, the water is brought into a greenhouse full of plants and fish. With the help of sunlight, plants and animals, many chemicals can be removed from the water. That makes the water cleaner. Then the water can be used for washing or bathing. Though it cant be used for drinking or cooking, the water is clean enough to water the flowers, wash the dog and bathe.

This technology is good for the environment. It can also help to save fresh water and it can help provide the unpolluted water. If we take actions to do something to save energy on the earth, our planet will have a longer life and our life will be better.

“My dream has come true. I have always wanted to be a Grand Slam(大满贯) champion.” These are the words of Chinese tennis player Li Na after she became the first Asian woman to win a Grand Slam final in the French Open on June 4, 2011.

“People were saying I’m getting old. So this is a great success for such an old woman,” the 29-year-old girl joked.

Miss Li has a tattoo(纹身). She has dyed her hair many different colors. And, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she told her fans to “shut up” when they got too noisy in their support.

Li Na was born in Wuhan, she started to play tennis at the age of 6. She once recalled: “As a child, I felt sad because every day I had to wake up early to practice. After school I had to practice more. I didn’t have time to play.”

Luckily, the strong girl didn’t give up, thus making history for Chinese tennis time after time.

Now the new champion is already thinking about winning another Grand Slam title. “When you have one title, surely you will think about another,” she says, not hiding her ambition(雄心).

“Chinese people are so lacking(缺乏) in confidence on the tennis court. If there is a person like me who can prove we Chinese can do it, the other young players in China will feel the same,” she said.

6 . The popular TV program Readers has prompted more people in China to practice reading aloud in booths（亭）set up in big cities across the country.

As the latest TV show to help people’s love for literature recover, the CCTV program Readers invites people from all walks of life to read aloud their favourite poems, essays and books, or even personal letters they wrote to their loved ones. Just as the weekly show has been well-received, its reading booths which are equipped with professional recording devices and cameras have also become instant hits.

A crowd of more than 200 people were pictured lining up outside the Shanghai Library at 11 a.m. on March 4th —the first day of the booth’s opening to the public in Shanghai. The deadline for registrations（注册）was brought forward to 2 p.m. instead of the scheduled 5:30 p.m., as the number of waiting readers continued to grow. Some waited more than nine hours for a tryout（试用）in the booth,   according to library management.

“There is an old photo in the late 1970s capturing people lining up outside the Shanghai Library before it opens. If that was a spring of reading in Shanghai, now I think another spring has arrived again,” library manager Zhou Deming, told The Paper.

The reading booth is the only one of its kind in the city of economic centre at the moment, but more are expected to be put into use in the coming months, according to the library’s website.

The program has also led to booths in other cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Xi’an to appeal to more people to read and share their life stories.

With the recent boom of culture themed TV shows such as Readers and Chinese Poetry Congress, some are optimistic that this will help the country love literature and reading again in general.

7 . “For as long as I can remember, mom has been a middle-aged woman, but no one told me she used to be a young girl…This is a line from the film Hi, Mom, as well as the way director and star Jia Ling once felt about her own mother. Released on Feb 12, the film is the directorial debut (导演首秀) of 39-year-old comedian-turned-filmmaker Jia. It has gotten a high score of 8.1 on the movie rating website Douban. Many people said they were touched by its raw (质朴的) emotion.

The film is based on the real-life story of Jia and her mother, showing her missing and regret at failing to see her mother before she died. It reflects on how she misses her late mother Li Huanying, who encouraged Jia to pursue (追求) her artistic dreams. To make the film more appealing, Jia made it a time-travel story. She goes back to 1981 and becomes friends with her own mom, Li Huanying. She risks giving up her own life and disappearing to make sure that her mother has a better future.

The Spring Festival holiday box office (票房) seems to prefer the films “with great family love and a little hurt”, and Hi, Mom has “hit all the right notes”. The film has also been praised for its, sincere description of female (女性的) roles. In the movie, Li is more of a young girl rather than a mother. As Jia says in the movie, “She is not only my mom, but also herself…” The many women who helped make the film, including Jia herself, helped the movie’s female roles shine in ways that had nothing to do with their looks, according to Jiemian News.

9 . Eight years ago, Chinese skater Wu Dajing introduced himself to the skating world by winning a silver medal at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games. At the year of 2018’s Pyeong Chang Olympics, Wu not only returned, but also made history.

On Feb 22th, 2018, Wu won the gold medal in the man’s short-track 500-metre race. He set a new world record with a time of 39.584 seconds. He also became the first Chinese man to take home an Olympic short-track gold medal. BBC said Wu’s win was “flawless”, because he was much faster than all of the other skaters.

“I didn’t give them a chance and I kept my speed from the start,” he told the media after the match.

But China’s short-track teams didn’t do well in general at the Games. Chinese skaters in the woman’s 500 meters, 3000-meter relay and man’s 1500 meters all failed to take home the gold. Wu was China’s biggest hope, which put a lot of pressure on him. But he proved himself with his great performance.

Wu is now known as a highly talented skater. But things were not always that way. When Wu joined the national team in 2010, he was seen as almost “nothing” compared to gifted skaters like Zhou Yang and Fan Kexin, as his coaches said at the time. Their comments made him quite upset. But as the saying goes, “Winners never quit and quitters never win”, Wu didn’t want to give up and worked as hard as he could. He practiced skating all year round. He even didn’t return to his hometown for the holidays for 10 years. “I believe in myself,” he told the media after his match at the Olympics.

The 2021 Henan Spring Festival Gala appeared on Wednesday evening, Feb.10. Since Thursday, a video of the dance show “Night Banquet in Palace of Tang Dynasty(《唐宫夜宴》)” caused a hot topic. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the program had been viewed 10 million times on Sina Weibo.

According to Chen Lei, the director of the show, “We hope the 2021 Spring Festival Gala can give everyone more joy and warmth,” Chen said. “We used 5G and AR technology to connect virtual(虚拟的) scenes with a real stage, bringing singing and dancing into a museum setting, creating a feeling of a wonderful night in the museum.”

Audiences have been drawn into learning more about traditional culture after watching the Henan Spring Festival Gala because of this show. Chen said that after enjoying the gala, netizens(网友) said that they would like to go to visit the Henan Provincial Museum and he was filled with a sense of pride and accomplishment because of that.“We have done a little bit to the revival(复兴) of traditional culture,” he said.

A netizen with a nickname @kenanyis said that the program really “brought our national treasure come back to life.” “After watching it, I really want to go to the Henan Provincial Museum.” Another netizen with a nickname @aichiyu said that it was amazing how popular the show was after being replayed millions of times!