World News for Students of English

12-04-2021 07:00

Civita di Bagnoregio is a 3,000-year-old town in Italy. People call it a dying town because it is possible that the town will soon disappear.

Civita is on a clay and volcanic rock cliff, and rain and winds changed the cliff quickly. In the past, the town was three times bigger than it is today. Now it is only 152 meters long and 91 meters wide, and people can only get there via a bridge.

Local people attached hundreds of steel rods to the walls and rock, and they hoped that the rods would keep the walls straight. Civita became a popular place for tourists. In 2019, more than a million tourists visited the town and they brought a lot of money.

Then the coronavirus changed everything, and people there do not have any money now. They hope that the situation will get better if Civita becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Difficult words: clay (thick, heavy earth which gets soft when you mix it with water), cliff (a steep rock, often on a coast), rod (a thin straight piece or metal or wood), UNESCO World Heritage Site (a famous place according to an international organization).

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