World News for Students of English

23-02-2016 07:00

“We’ve got a table and eight chairs and a daybed and probably a few plants.”

There’s a hairy panic in this rural town in Victoria Australia –tumbleweed’s taken over Wangaratta, with doors, windows and gardens getting clogged up by the weeds.

“I spent eight hours yesterday cleaning up the tumbleweed, and this is what I’ve got today.”

According to local media, the tumbleweed, which is called hairy panic, has been around for a couple of years, but this summer, conditions have been dry, making it the worst yet.

“It is frustrating, you know, that you got a good couple of hours’ work ahead of you and that’s always a sort of displeasing.”

The local council’s apparently refused to help homeowners with the clean-up as the weeds are not a fire risk. Residents reckon it’s coming from a local field that’s not being maintained by a farmer. Just slightly more tumbleweed then you see rolling by in a Western movie!

Difficult words: rural (country), tumbleweed (a dry bush that moves around in the summer), clogged (blocked), weed (a wild plant), displeasing (making you upset), apparently (it seems that), reckon (to think).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com