World News for Students of English

03-12-2015 15:00

It may not be Christmas just yet, but Australia certainly has something to celebrate. The country’s broken the Guinness World Record for the most lights on an artificial Christmas tree. This 22-metre tree has a total of 518,838 twinkling lights – yes, just over half a million, beating the 36-metre Japanese tree that it set a new benchmark earlier this month.

Hundreds gathered in Canberra’s town centre for the confirmation it had broken the record that had been held for five years by Universal Studios Japan in Osaka.

“We weren’t sure whether we would get the record. Guinness World Records flew in just to adjudicate our record tonight. Everything went according to plan and I was so relieved when the lights went on and the Guinness World Record representative said we have the new world record.”

Various volunteers, including electrical and structural engineers, were called in to help create the masterpiece all in aid of charity.

Difficult words: artificial (not natural), twinkling (shining), gather (o tmeet in large numbers), whether (if), adjudicate (to make a formal judgement), volunteer (a person who does something without being paid for it), aid (help).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com