World News for Students of English

02-12-2015 15:00

Queen Elizabeth has completed her three-day official visit to Malta. During her tour of the country, she met with the Maltese president, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, and planted a tree in the grounds of the president’s official residence – the San Anton palace.

It was far from the monarch’s first visit to the country, formally calling the island home prior to her ascension to the throne in 1952. In the years since, she’s visited the country many more times. Here she is unveiling an Air Force memorial back in 1954.

The visit this time wasn’t also understated as tree planting. She was also there to open a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

“For more than six decades of being head of the Commonwealth, a responsibility I have cherished…”

Prior to the Commonwealth dinner when new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded her that he was the 12th to serve under her reign.

The reminder went down well. “Thank you, Mr Prime Minister of Canada for making me feel so old!”

Difficult words: prior to (before), ascension (rising to an important positing), unveil (to uncover – show for the first time), understate (to make something seem less important), the Commonwealth (an organization of about 50 countries which were once part of the British Empire), cherish (to hold dear), go down (to start a reaction).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com