World News for Students of English

07-03-2016 07:00

A bright flash of light illuminates the sky, as what’s believed to be a meteor, streaks across the sky in Scotland, which the UK Met Office has confirmed wasn’t weather-related.

Many Scots reported seeing this astonishing sight in the early evening sky. Images of the phenomenon started circulating on social media with some speculating on what it could mean and others taking to Twitter to somewhat dramatically declare that it was a sign of the end of the world.

Captured on car dash-cam, the scene seems like any normal evening drive until the sky suddenly lights up and a travelling spotlight looks to be falling down to earth.

Other CCTV footage like this one here shows a dramatic flash of white, prompting many to report the unusual event to the police. But despite all the furore, experts claim that meteors are no more than a speck of dust. And that if this is one, it would have been no more than about 10 centimetres across.

So it wasn’t quite Armageddon as was suggested on social media.

Difficult words: streak (to move very fast), Met (meteorological – about weather), astonishing (amazing), phenomenon (something which happens), declare (to say), dash-cam (a camera which you put in your car), CCTV footage (security camera video), furore (excitement), claim (to say), speck (a small piece).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com