Investors were spooked by the Chinese stock market's volatile swings.

The wildest ride in China this year wasn't at an amusement park, it was the country's stock exchange. A steady stream of local money fed an equity bubble that popped on June 12. Chinese regulators tried aggressively to stabilize the market but the Shanghai composite still plunged 34% between June and September. At one point, more than half of all listed companies had halted trading, and regulators suspended new market listings. Things seem to be going out on a high note though. Shanghai's main index is up more than 10% for the year.

Vocabulary:

Equity bubble, composite, plunge

2.Death by escalator

Xiang Liujuan was able to push her son to safety when an escalator's top panel collapsed but herself was not so lucky.

A thirty-second clip from a security camera became the most haunting video from China in 2015. The footage showed a mother approaching the top of an escalator with her child when a panel suddenly gives way. Although she manages to push her child to safety, she falls to her death. While online commentators praised 31-year-old Xiang Liujuan for her quick thinking to save her young son, they also questioned why the accident happened in the first place at all. Even more unsettling? A similar incident occurred a week later when a Shanghai man's leg was amputated after it became trapped when yet another escalator panel collapsed. The accidents sparked numerous videos on social media of people tiptoeing on escalators or riding the handrails in fear of becoming the next escalator victim.

Vocabulary:

Give way, spark