World News for Students of English

18-08-2014 15:00

A giant “supermoon” has lit up the night skies across the world in one of the most anticipated and most dramatic astronomical events of the year.

This year’s Perseid meteor shower meant that scientists and stargazers around the globe were dazzled by the biggest and brightest “supermoon” of this year.

The phenomenon occurs when a full or new moon coincides when the moon is at its closest point to earth making it appear bigger than usual.

“Recently, there’s been this misidentification of other full moons as super moons. This is the supermoon, this is the largest full moon of the calendar year. The full moon that occurred in July and the full moon that will occur in September are also going to be large, but not as large as this one, so they’ve been called the supermoon, although by the strict definition there’s only one per year. They’re sort of quasi-supermoons, or super-ish moons, but this is the supermoon.”

The massive moon could be seen from various points all over the world, from China to Brazil to Spain. It was at its closest point to Earth yesterday early evening.

Difficult words: anticipated (waited for), dramatic (intense), stargazer (somebody who gazes/watches the stars), dazzle (impress), phenomenon (something that happens in nature), full moon (when you can see the whole moon), new moon (when you can see a very small part of the moon), coincide (happen at the same time as something else), quasi- (a little bit related).

Source: www.itn.co.uk