World News for Students of English

17-12-2021 07:00

Linda Hoffman and Harriet Carter learned that they were sisters when they were 71 and 74 years old.

The two women lived in different US states, and they both signed up for the website Ancestry.com. On the website, people could find their long-lost relatives or learn more about their families.

Two years ago, a DNA test showed that the women were sisters, but they could not meet because of the coronavirus. The two women also learned that their parents gave Carter for adoption shortly after she was born. They were only 18 years old at that time, and they never told anyone.

Last week, Carter traveled from Sacramento, California, to Denver, Colorado, to meet her sister. At the airport they looked at some of Hoffman’s old photos, and they realized how many memories they missed. Happily, they were not sad, as they were excited that they could spend at least some time together.

Difficult words: long-lost relative (a person who belongs to a family but does not know the family), DNA test (a medical test which tells if some people belong to the same family), adoption (when a person legally takes someone else’s child and the child belongs to his family from that moment).

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