World News for Students of English

14-09-2026 07:00

Lorenzo Suarez lives in a poor neighborhood near Havana, Cuba, but his home contains a beautiful greenhouse with 100 different types of orchids.

Cuba faces many economic problems, such as blackouts and shortages, but Suarez works hard to grow these colorful flowers. He is an agricultural engineer who enjoys creating new plant varieties. In 2009, he created a famous pink, yellow, and white orchid called Bella Lorena. Now, he mixes local Cuban orchids with plants from other countries. His goal is to create strong new flowers that can survive warmer temperatures on the island.

By creating beautiful new orchids at home, he hopes to stop people from taking rare wild orchids from the forests, where many native orchids are endangered.

Difficult words: shortage (a situation where there is not enough of something that is needed), variety (a specific type of a plant or animal, or a choice of different things), endangered (in danger of dying out or disappearing completely).

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