World News for Students of English

09-11-2021 15:00

Maya Bay in Thailand made headlines in 1999 when Hollywood arrived there to film ‘The Beach’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  Since then, tourists have flooded this beach with as many as 4,000 visitors arriving on boats every day.

The mass tourism exhausted the once-pristine beach and ruined the natural life. That is why people closed the beach to tourists for four months. When it reopens by the end of September, they will impose a limit of 2,000 visitors per day.

A marine scientist said that he and the other scientists made a mistake thinking that the money from the movie was very important, but now they see that the beach is a natural resource that they have to preserve.

Zelda Tinska, an actress from the film, said that she honestly thinks that the West is a society which is obsessed with fame and celebrity. People do not visit the beach because they want to see the actual location but because there was a film shot there – and Thailand is an amazing country and there are many other beaches as beautiful as Maya Bay.

Difficult words: make headlines (was in the news), flood (come in too great numbers), pristine (untouched by people), impose (set), obsessed (in this example, when fame and celebrity are dominating people’s minds).

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