Basketball in water
There is a new popular video on the Internet. It is pretty cool.
It shows how a group of young guys at a pool pass a basketball to one another. They do it in a quite complicated way. But it is something amazing.
It all happens very fast and the last one throws the ball into the basket. You should check out the video and watch it!
Difficult words: guy (man), pass (throw to somebody), check out (look at).
Little snow leopard
A zoo in Chicago has a new male baby snow leopard. He is two months old so he is still in a den which is closed to the zoo's visitors. People will be able to see him in September when he makes his first public debut. But for now, only TV cameras can capture him.
The little snow leopard weighs about ten pounds (4.5 kilograms) and he still has no name. There are 140 snow leopards in the zoos of North America and only around 3,500 to 7,000 snow leopards in the world.
Difficult words: male (boy), den (animal's home), debut (when something is shown).
Famous painter from Japan
A man from the Japanese City of Osaka has become an internet star thanks to his great painting skills.
The man has a degree in art but started to work in an office because he didn't think that he could make enough money as an artist. But thankfully, he never stopped following his dreams and he draws on his iPad.
With one iPad and a cheap app in it, he can draw and amaze many people. He draws everything from replicas of original masterpieces to portraits. He films everything and then puts it all on YouTube. The videos are very popular and get over 100,000 views every time.
Difficult words: app (computer software), amaze (surprise very much), replica (copy), masterpiece (very good picture).
Bus drivers in Paraguay
A group of bus drivers from Paraguay were fired from their jobs. They want their jobs back and to get them back they decided to do something quite extreme.
They nailed themselves to a wooden board. They have nails in their hands. It is very painful. They hope that their former employer will give them their jobs back.
The employer wants to give them the jobs back but only to five of them. But the bus drivers won't stop until all eight of them have their jobs back.
Difficult words: nail (attach with a long and thin metal thing - nail), former (the one before).
Belly full of cocaine
A Canadian woman was arrested at a Colombian airport. The twenty-eight-year-old woman wanted to travel back to Toronto with 2 kilograms of cocaine.
The woman was pretending to be pregnant. She had a big belly. The drugs were hidden in the belly, but the police discovered her secret.
Two kilograms of cocaine are worth $60,000 in Canada. The woman may spend 8 years of her life in prison.
Difficult words: pretend (do something which is not true), pregnant (have baby inside the body).
Special shoes for running
Wearing high heels is not comfortable and it is not usual to run with them. However, a woman from Germany does it and she is pretty good at it.
She is in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records after she ran 100 meters with heels in 14.531 seconds. It is not the fastest 100 meters, but the world champions don't run with high heels, right?
The woman has been running with heels for years. In 2009 she took part in a "High Heels Race" in Berlin, where she lives. The heels had to be 7 centimeters high. Julia's were 8.5 centimeters and she won the race.
Difficult words: heel (high part on the bottom of a shoe that makes the shoe higher at the back), take part (do something).
Frog in the air
A strange picture was taken during a spacecraft's take-off in Virginia.
The picture shows the spacecraft and a small thing in the air. It is not a plane, nor a bird. If you look closely, you can see that it is a frog.
NASA has said that the picture is real. The frog was probably resting nearby and when the spacecraft started to take off, it was thrown into the air.
Difficult words: spacecraft (machine with people that can travel into space), take-off (the moment of something getting in the air).
This woman is a crab
A woman who used to read the Guinness Book of World Records for fun with her family is now in its current version.
She is really excited and happy about it. But what is it that the woman can do? She is a contortionist. That means she can move her body into strange positions and entertain people by it. Every time she's at a party, her friends ask her to do a trick. After she does it, they are all really shocked.
The woman was also in the semi-final of “Britain's Got Talent” so you might actually know her. If you don't, and you'd like to see some of her tricks, check out the video!
Difficult words: entertain (make people happy).
Olympic Games 2020
People from Tokyo are celebrating because their city was chosen to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Japanese Prime Minister thanked the International Olympic Committee and promised that Japan will make sure the Olympic Games will be successful.
There have been some worries about the damaged nuclear plant, Fukushima. The radiation levels are high and contaminated water is leaking. However, Tokyo was still chosen.
Difficult words: nuclear plant (building which makes electricity from atoms), contaminated (dangerous for the body), leak (get slowly away).
53 hours in water
An American swimmer swam from Cuba to Florida. The 64-year-old woman swam for 53 hours non-stop.
It was dangerous not only because of the long distance. There were sharks in the waters, too. The woman had no protection. She had no shark cage and so she was the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without one.
After she got on the beach in Florida, people gave her a warm welcome. The woman tried to swim this distance before but she didn't succeed. But this time she did and people were as happy just as much as she was.
Difficult words: shark cage (cage that protects you from sharks), succeed (do something successfully).