15-04-2015 15:00

A woman in Japan was born in 1898. She helped her family in a clothing business until she got married and started her own family at age 21. She had three children, three grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

She never had major illnesses  throughout her lifetime. She lived to be the oldest person on earth. She had her birthday on March 5th at the age of 117, and the Guinness World Records recognised her as the oldest person alive. She died recently of natural causes.

The next oldest person is 116 years old and lives in the United States.

Difficult words: major (very bad), recognise (to let many people know about you), die of natural causes (to die from something that seems normal when you’re old).

You can read the original story and watch the video in the Level 3 section.