World News for Students of English

17-12-2021 15:00

The number of people using London’s subway fell by almost 20 percent after the government advised people to work from home because of the rapid rise of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

Numbers for the Monday-morning rush hour up until 10 am showed that the number of people using the subway dropped by 18% from the previous week. Travel by bus, which tends to include more schoolchildren, was down only by 6% as schools stayed open.

Businesses in the City of London, the primary central business district of the city, told staff to work from home again last week, in response to the government’s advice. Even before the change, some employees had returned to working from home to avoid catching the virus before Christmas.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far resisted demands to further tighten coronavirus restrictions, with a growing number of his party members threatening to rebel against new restrictions.

Difficult words: rapid (happening in a short time or at a great rate), rush hour (one of the busy parts of the day when people travel either to or from work and school), rebel (to oppose somebody in authority).

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