World News for Students of English

06-02-2023 15:00

In 1986, Christopher Knight walked into the woods in Maine. He stayed there for almost three decades as a hermit, living nearly without human contact and stealing from nearby camps.

To survive the brutal winters, he built a large camp about 20 miles north of Augusta. He covered his tent with a tarp and surrounded it by camouflage garbage cans to conceal that he was there.

Christopher said that the last major event he remembered happening was the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but that was not necessarily why he went into the woods.

Police caught and arrested him at the Pine Tree Camp where he had been stealing food. Christopher told police officers that he had talked to only one person during all of that solitude.

Police charged him with one count of burglary so far, and additional counts will likely follow during the 27 years in the woods.

Difficult words: hermit (a person living alone), tarp (a strong, heavy cloth that some tents are made of), camouflage (masking), conceal (hide), solitude (loneliness), charge (officially say that somebody is guilty of a crime).

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