World News for Students of English

15-09-2021 07:00

In August 2020, twin girls were born in Israel. They never saw each other because they were joined at the head. Last week, they could look at each other for the first time.

A team of experts from Israel and other countries spent a year planning a surgery which would separate the girls. It was a complicated surgery, and the team used 3D and virtual reality models to plan it. Doctors performed this surgery only twenty times in the world, and it was the first time that they did it in Israel.

Months before the surgery, doctors put silicone bags into the girls’ heads which lengthened their skin. After the doctors reconstructed the skulls, they used the new skin to close the heads. The surgery took 12 hours, and it was successful. The girls will live normal lives.

Difficult words: joined (connected), silicone (a special metal material which doctors can use in bodies), skull (the bones of the head).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.