Lexington, KY, USA (May 14, 2012)--The city of Lexington in Kentucky, USA, with its shady streets, neighborhoods and parks, is at its best in spring when leaves sprout, flowers bloom, and the vast farms and horse parks turn green. Spring in Lexington was the theme of the Second Annual UKCI (Confucius Institute at the University of Kentucky) Speech Contest, held in White Hall Classroom Building at the University of Kentucky on Friday, May 11.

Seventeen parents, teachers and contestants attended the event. The contestants put the theme in contexts they are familiar with. For example, Sophia Li, a 4th Grader from the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, talked about the beauty of her neighbor's garden in spring, with green lawn and many kinds of flowers in various colors. And, Chandler Morin from the Lexington Chinese School chose to describe the Kentucky Horse Park and horse races as a very popular outdoor spring event.

The contestants' speeches featured their ingenious ways of linking "Spring in Lexington" with various landscapes familiar to them, thus indicating their ability to use the Chinese language in daily contexts. This gave the organizers and judges a deep impression. The speech contest aroused vivid images of the beauty of spring in Lexington.