World News for Students of English

30-03-2021 07:00

The Ever Given is one of the largest container ships in the world. It weighs 224,000 tons and it is 400 meters long. It was built in 2018 and it is sailing under the flag of Panama.

Last week, the ship was traveling from Malaysia to the Netherlands, but there were strong winds and a sandstorm in the Suez Canal. The captain could not see well and the ship blocked the canal.

Workers tried to move the ship, but they were not successful. More than 150 ships waited in the sea because they could not pass through the canal. It was a big problem because these ships carried things and petrol or gas from Asia to Europe.

One day of waiting could cost almost 10 billion dollars, and officials said that it could take weeks to move the ship.

Difficult words: container ship (a very big ship which carries things in special metal boxes), under the flag (when a thing or people do work for a certain country), sandstorm (a strong wind which brings clouds of sand with it), block (when something or someone is in a place and nothing else can move or pass through).

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