End of the Circus – level 3

20-01-2017 15:00

After a final curtain call, the end of “the Greatest Show on Earth” will happen. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus is going to close forever in May, due to high operating costs and dwindling popularity. Audience numbers went down after the circus ended the elephant show because of pressure from animal rights groups. Technology also played a role in the circus’s demise.

In recent years, the Ringling Brothers tried to keep up with the times by launching an app, but it was not enough. The company will perform 30 more shows between now and May, so that fans will have a chance to say goodbye before the final curtain call.
Difficult words: curtain call (when people in a performance come out at the end to bow to the audience), the Greatest Show on Earth (the name for the circus since the 1800s), operating costs (how much it costs to run something), dwindling (decreasing), demise (a death, an end), keep up with the times (seem important to today).

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