Dec. 25, 2013 Wednesday

Christmas tree in Brazil - level 2

More than a hundred thousand locals and tourists turned out in Rio de Janeiro. They all came to see the 279 foot tree (85 meters).

The tree was covered by 3.1 million lights which could form different pictures. The pictures shown represented five different things: water, air, forests, humanity and Christmas. Water was represented by blue lights and aquatic creatures. Birds symbolized air. Green color and monkeys stood for forests. People who held hands represented humanity and Christmas.

This Christmas tree ceremony began in 1996 and has become Rio’s third biggest tourist event.

Difficult words: turn out (come to an event), humanity (people and kindness), aquatic creatures (water animals).