World News for Students of English

23-10-2023 15:00

The Amazon River is in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest, which faced a big drought, and it caused its water level to go down very much.

Tributaries are rivers which flow into another river. The Amazon River’s tributaries are drying out, and there are many stranded boats. This isolates some villages which have little water and food. High water temperatures harm river dolphins, and many of them died. In the city of Manaus, water levels fell to 13.59 meters from 17.60 meters the previous year, the lowest level in the last hundred years.

Scientists believe that the El Nino causes the drought, and they expect it to continue until at least December. It affected about 481,000 people in Amazonas state. Late last week, authorities sent help to the villages which have the most problems. Many goods are now arriving by tractors because no boats can get to the villages.

Difficult words: drought (the time with no or little rain), stranded (when a boat is stuck in a place and it cannot move), isolate (to cause a person or place to be alone or apart from others).

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