World News for Students of English

28-10-2022 07:00

The Mississippi River is America’s largest river, and it’s drying up; the bottom of the river is now massive sand dunes.

The water levels are dropping to record lows near Memphis, Tennessee, which are more than three meters below expected. The US mega drought is expanding to 59% of the states. The situation’s getting worse mostly in the Great Plains in the Midwest, as the drought covers almost all of the Mississippi’s tributaries.

The low levels of many rivers are devastating the agricultural industry and the whole transportation network in the Midwest. Low water levels carry much less cargo, and farmers have few options to send soybeans, corn and grains to international markets. They have to wait for the water to get deeper.

Clearly, people will have to learn to adapt to the changing climate and the continuing drop in water levels.

Difficult words: dune (a hill of sand), tributary (a river that flows into a larger river or lake), devastating (great damage or harm).

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