World News for Students of English

14-10-2020 15:00

In 2018, miners in Canada discovered a rough diamond that weighed 271 carats. Diamond cutters cut and polished it, and they made a 102-carat oval diamond.

Last week, the auction house Sotheby’s in Hong Kong sold the diamond for $15.7 million. A man from Japan bought the stone, and he named it after his second daughter. Last year, the same man bought another big diamond, and he named it after his first daughter.

The diamond is very special because it is a rare white diamond. It has the right color and it is very clear, which makes it perfect and very expensive. When Sotheby’s announced that they would sell the diamond, many people made a bid. The highest online bid was $14.6 million, which was the highest online bid in history.

Difficult words: carat (a unit that measures the weight and value of gold and diamonds), auction house (a place where people sell and buy expensive things like paintings or jewelry), bid (when somebody offers a price of something that he wants to buy).

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