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Transcript

A historic day that one of the UK's biggest royal fans has been looking forward to.

Queen Elizabeth II has now overtaken Queen Victoria as the UK's longest-serving monarch. Victoria was on the throne for 63 years, seven months and two days.

Margaret Tyler, the self-styled 'queen of royal memorabilia', has turned her house into a shrine to Britain's royals.

Each room is dedicated to a member of the family. But Queen Elizabeth has two rooms all to herself.

Vocabulary

overtaken
gone past

longest-serving
person in a position for the most amount of time

self-styled
named by herself

memorabilia
objects collected which are connected to an event or person

shrine
(here) a place to pay respect to a person or institution

To do

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports.

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

overtaken / longest-serving / self-styled / memorabilia / shrine

1. South African police are investigating the raid of a church run by a _________ prophet accused of making his followers eat snakes, rats and hair.

2. The Hobbit has been _________ by Taken 3 at the top of the North American box office chart after spending three weeks in the top spot.

3. A postbox in Bristol has been turned into a _________ by people upset about a decision to remove it.

4. A firefighter who trained to follow in his father's footsteps is retiring after 47 years of service. Staffordshire Fire and Rescue service said Chris Thompson was the _________ firefighter in its history.

5. A collection of _________ devoted to George IV's only child Princess Charlotte, who died giving birth nearly 200 years ago, is to go on sale.

Answers

1. South African police are investigating the raid of a church run by a self-styled prophet accused of making his followers eat snakes, rats and hair.

See story

2. The Hobbit has been overtaken by Taken 3 at the top of the North American box office chart after spending three weeks in the top spot.

See story

3. A postbox in Bristol has been turned into a shrine by people upset about a decision to remove it.

See story

4. A firefighter who trained to follow in his father's footsteps is retiring after 47 years of service. Staffordshire Fire and Rescue service said Chris Thompson was the longest-serving firefighter in its history.

See story

5. A collection of memorabilia devoted to George IV's only child Princess Charlotte, who died giving birth nearly 200 years ago, is to go on sale.

See story

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