1 . In the heart of a harsh winter, Ma Yuxing and his family found themselves caught in an unexpected blizzard as they returned to Xinjiang after the Spring Festival. The storm forced them to leave the highway and seek shelter in Guazhou Coupty, Gansu, where the local community’s warmth would soon thaw their cold predicament.

Amidst the snowstorm, local authorities rapidly transformed schools and gymnasiums into temporary shelters for stranded (受困的) travelers like Ma and his family. Despite the freezing temperatures and growing demand for accommodation, the people of Guazhou sprang into action, providing food, warmth, and medical assistance to everyone in need.

The generosity of the Guazhou residents knew no bounds. Local citizens, like Wang Yang, opened their homes to strangers, embodying a spirit of communal support and hospitality. The local governmen, along with various organizations and businesses, coordinated effectively to distribute essential supplies and ensure the safety and comfort of all stranded individuals.

This story of snowstorm turned unity highlights the kind nature of the Guazhou community, a testament to human kindness in the face of natural disaster.

The film, Article 20, which is directed by Zhang Yimou, draws     1    (it) name from Article 20 of the Criminal Law, which focuses on the sometimes controversial legal concept of justifiable (正当的) self-defense.    2    (draw) inspiration from real-life cases of justifiable defense, the film has got widespread attention and resonated with the public as well as judicial institutions during the Spring Festival holiday.

According to the Criminal Law《刑法, when a person,    3    (face) with an unlawful attack, takes action     4    (protect) his or her own rights or interests or those of others, and the attacker is thereby harmed, the defender will be considered to have acted in justifiable defense and will not bear criminal liability (刑事责任) .

For some time, justifiable defense     5    (regard) as a “dormant clause (休眠条款)”, due to challenges in interpretation and the influence of misconceptions, such as “whoever is injured or killed is right”.

Many online users have commented that the true    6    (mean) of the law should be to increase the liability for wrongdoers, rather than burdening good people.

Luo Xiang,    7    renowned professor of criminal law at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the public and judicial officers should avoid taking a “godlike” perspective or adopting a rational but armchair stance. Instead, they should consider the situation in    8    the defender was involved, empathize with the defender’s position, and refrain (避免) from making excessive demands on the defender, Luo said.

Liu Zhe, a prosecutor (检察官) from the Beijing People’s Procuratorate, said some outdated judicial concepts may lead    9    flawed (有错的) cases. Making decisions different from traditional precedent requires courage. But judicial officers need to encourage the public to fight against    10    (legal) activities.

5 . Lion dance is a valued tradition deeply rooted in South China’s Guangdong province and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asian countries. Historically, this art form was only practiced by men. However, a unique team consisting entirely of teenage girls stands out among all the male groups—they are the Nanxing Hexingtang Women’s Lion Dance Team from the town of Ren he in Guangzhou.

Nearly every village in Guangzhou has its own lion dance team. Yet as of 2018, Hexingtang had only male participants. As there was a decline in the number of young people practicing lion dance, it accepted a few young girls. The journey was far from smooth for the girls. They were once hired to perform for a family on the first day of Chinese New Year. When the family realized that it was the girls who would be performing, they erupted in anger and chased them away. Then Hexingtang decided to formally establish a women’s team to make the female lion dance leagal. They customized flags and banners printed with “women’s team”, crafted pink and purple lion heads, which are rarely seen in male lion dance, and even fashioned a lion head looking like the image of the female general Mu Guiying, a famous figure in Yue Opera.

It was hoped that after the girls won awards and proved themselves, they might be accepted by more people. Their breakthrough came in 2021 when the girls beat all-male teams and won the first prize in a competition in Guangzhou’s Baiyun district. The following year, at the 16th Guangdong Provincial Games, the girls once again got the top prize in the junior group, representing Guangzhou. Since then, they have continued to win awards. In the recent Maofeng Mountain competition just before Spring Festival in Guangzhou, the team performed a routine titled “Tramping Over Mountains and Hills Step by Step”, which mirrors the growth journey of these girls themselves as they navigate through numerous challenges. Behind this near-perfect performance is girls’ dedication and hard work.

Lion dance is not easy, especially for girls, as it demands significant strength and mastery of martial arts movements. However, girls possess unique advantages and can cultivate a distinctive style. Girls typically have a keen understanding of music, performing perfectly in both lion and instrument roles. Furthermore, their superior physical flexibility allows them to complete difficult moves. Most importantly, their sensitivity enables them to capture the expressions and behaviors of lions.

Food from the air

Everyone has seen plants growing, but have you ever thought     1     they get their food? In the seventeenth century, a European scientist     2     (call) Van Helmot asked this question. Like most people, he thought that plants must get their food from soil. However, Van Helmot decided       3     (test) the theory with experiments.

First, he dried some soil, put it into a pot and weighed it. Next, he weighed a small tree, planted it in the pot and added rain water. Then, he watered it     4     (regular) with rain water.

After five years, he removed the tree from the pot and weighed it again. He found that the tree had gained     5     huge amount of weight. When he weighed the soil, however, it was almost exactly the same as it had been five years    6    . So Van Helmot drew the    7    (conclude) that the tree grew by drinking water. Though it turned out to be wrong, he showed the importance of the use of scientific evidence to support ideas.

We now know that plants and trees make their own food. Their leaves, when exposed     8     the air and sun, are like factories    9     can change the energy from the sun into chemical energy. During this process (过程), oxygen and sugar     10     (produce). The oxygen is released back into the air, and the sugar is used by the plant as food.