Man in the ground
Two men were laying pipes for a new sewer system in China when the earth above them fell down. One worker managed to escape, but the second worker was covered with the earth.
The earth was up to the man’s chest. He couldn’t move. People think that the earth moved because of a heavy excavator which was parked close to them.
The rescue operation was hard because the earth was loose. The worker sunk deeper and deeper into the earth. It took three hours to free the man who was then taken to the hospital.
Difficult words: sewer system (system of pipes which carry away dirty water), excavator (large machine for digging and moving earth), loose (not hard).
Boy was in a coma
A boy was riding a bike to his summer job in July when a van hit him. He was not wearing a helmet because he didn’t want to spoil his hairstyle.
He went into a coma. It has been months, but he has finally woken up. It is a miracle for his parents who are more optimistic now. The sixteen-year-old boy is recovering. He improves a little every day, but there is still a long road ahead of him.
The boy’s family has spent every day at his side since the accident. When he woke up, his first words were: “hello.” “dad” and “mum.”
Difficult words: van (bigger car for transporting things), helmet (thing which protects your head), coma (when you sleep for a long time after an accident).
Syrian children
A group of children talked about their experiences in the conflict in Syria when a large explosion knocked them to the ground. The moment was captured on camera.
The children crawled away and looked for cover after the explosion. The bomb exploded very close to them but the children survived. They described the near miss later in the video. One boy said that it felt like diving into a swimming pool.
It is estimated that over 7,000 children have been killed during the Syrian conflict.
Difficult words: crawl (move on your hands and knees), near miss (narrowly avoided accident), estimate (think).
Two little baboons
Two baby baboons made their first public appearance at a zoo in Brooklyn.
They were born only weeks apart on August 9th and September 26th. They have two different mothers who are both ten years old. They have one father. He is a 21 year-old male.
Baboons are large ground-dwelling animals. They are native to northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula where they can be found in rocky areas. The animals are highly social. They groom each other often.
Difficult words: ground-dwelling (living mainly on the ground), peninsula (land which is almost an island), groom (brush and clean).
Comet comes to the sun
Scientists are getting ready for a comet. The comet is expected to pass just one million kilometers from the sun’s surface.
The comet is traveling at 234 miles per second (377 kilometers per second) and its temperature is about 2,700 degrees. It may not survive. If it survives, it will be visible from Earth in December. If the comet crumbles into many pieces, it will be interesting for the scientists who will be able to see inside the comet.
The comet was first spotted in September because it’s exceptionally bright.
Difficult words: crumble (break), spot (notice), exceptionally (extremely).
This man is not Kim Jong-un
A 34-year-old man from Hong Kong looks just like the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
When Kim Jong-un became the president of North Korea, the man started to receive a lot of comments about his resemblance. The man has decided to take advantage of it. He has become a successful impersonator. He travels the world to film TV commercials and make appearances in TV shows. He charges $700 for an appearance.
This job has another advantage, as Kim Jong-un is a leader who will be in power until he dies. The impersonator will always have a job.
Difficult words: resemblance (similarity), impersonator (someone who acts like somebody famous), make appearance (be seen in a TV show).
81 years together
The longest married couple in America celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary.
The two come from a Syrian neighborhood in Connecticut. The wife’s father wanted to marry her off to a man she didn’t like, so she secretly married the man she loved, and they escaped to New York to start their life together. It was in 1932.
After 81 years, the wife says that marriage is not only something romantic. You learn to accept one another’s ways of life and all the disagreements, such as about children.
The couple can show us that true love doesn’t grow old. They have 14 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren together.
Difficult words: anniversary (date on which something special happened in the past), escape (get away), disagreement (situation in which people don’t agree on something).
Ice hits a car
Security cameras captured the moment a block of ice fell on a car. It happened on Friday in a northern Chinese city.
The SUV was traveling on a busy street when ice fell on the car. A large, icy mist spread across the street. No one was seriously injured, but the car was damaged. The roof was pressed inside, and the windshield was broken into pieces.
Difficult words: SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle – type of a car), mist (cloud), windshield (glass screen at the front of the car).
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme has performed thousands of splits throughout his career. The splits have become his signature move.
However, he performed a split recently which was quite unique. He stood on two side mirrors of two trucks that were moving. The trucks were close to each other at first, but then they started to open up. When the distance between them was big enough, the split was performed.
The video was made to promote Volvo trucks, and it has become very popular on the internet.
Difficult words: split (when one leg is far from the second leg), signature (something that represents you), open up (get farther from each other), promote (draw attention).
Woman under a car
A woman on an electric bicycle was hit by a car and trapped under it during rush hour in a Chinese city.
Many people didn’t care about the woman and carried on as normal. Some, however, came together and lifted up the car and saved the screaming woman. She was shocked and badly injured. She sat on the road for some time and then was transported to hospital.
When she was better, she thanked all the people who had helped her.
Difficult words: trapped (stuck), rush hour (time of the day when a lot of people travel to or from work, so the traffic is very busy).