World News for Students of English

23-09-2015 07:00

Teenage Muslim Ahmed Mohamed from Texas has been invited to the White House by Barack Obama after he was detained by police for taking a homemade clock to school that teachers thought was a bomb.

Mr Obama said in a Tweet, “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.”

The 14-year-old was led away in handcuffs from his school in North Texas on Monday after bringing the clock to his engineering class. He said his teacher had congratulated him but advised him “not to show any other teachers”.

Ahmed’s arrest has been sharply criticised. He has since had an outpouring of support on social media, under the hashtag “IStandWithAhmed”.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has even invited him to the site’s headquarters. Also in support of Ahmed, Steve Wozniak – the man who designed the first two Apple computers – has told the time he built a electronic metronome and was accused of making a bomb. He says he then spent a night in a juvenile prison.

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd told a news conference on Wednesday that Ahmed would not be charged.

Difficult words: outpouring (something that streams out rapidly), headquarters (a company’s administrative centre), juvenile (for young people).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com