World News for Students of English

20-08-2024 15:00

The beginning is not clear for the tradition of wedding rings, but some experts believe that it started in ancient Egypt.

For people in Egypt, a ring showed eternity because it had no beginning and no end. They also believed in the vein of love, which connects to the heart. It is the vein in the fourth finger on the left hand, and it explains why people wear a wedding ring on this finger.

Later, this tradition came to Greece and then Rome, where they believed that the ring showed that a man owned his wife. During World War II, men gave rings to women as a promise that they would marry them when they returned home.

Diamond rings became popular in the 1950s; company De Beers said in its slogan that diamonds lasted forever. Today, 86% of engagement rings in the US are diamond rings.

Difficult words: eternity (time which doesn’t end), vein (a tube through which the body’s blood goes), slogan (a short phrase or sentence which people can easily remember).

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