World News for Students of English

11-04-2014 07:00

A final whistle that everyone will have been dying to hear, marking the end of the longest game of basketball ever played.

“120 hours, 1 minute, 7 seconds.”

Having started on Monday, the two teams of 12 players from Manila in the Philippines have been shooting hoops non-stop for five days.

“We went through so much, the hardships, the stress, the pain and the emotional strain mixed together, but when we saw the clock reaching 120 hours, the pain vanished. We’re so happy.”

And in what sounds like the most grueling record attempt ever, the players had to follow strict instructions, including not being allowed to leave the court, only being allowed to rest when they were subbed off and not showing any sign of fatigue during play.

And 120 hours, one minute and seven seconds later, they had easily beaten the previous record of 112 hours and were able to get a well-earned rest.

Difficult words: mark (signal), hoop (the ring that you have to throw the ball through to score points), hardship (hard time), strain (stress), vanish (disappear), grueling (extremely tiring), sub off (replace by another player), fatigue (extreme tiredness).

Source: www.itn.co.uk