Learn English with the News: The Longest Cuban Cigar in the World!

José Castelar decided to beat the world record and make the longest cigar in history. Five assistants, forty-two kilograms of quality tobacco and forty hours is what he needs to make this dream come true: an 81.8 metre cigar that will stretch along 14 tables!

Castelar has been rolling cigars since he was a he was 5-year-old child. He believes the longest cigar must always be found in Cuba because his country makes the best tobacco. His next project is to make a 100 metre long cigar! These masterpieces, however, cannot be smoked – not because of the tobacco, but because nobody has the lung capacity!

Watch the following video and see Castelar making his cigar! The text bellow is the content of the video.

“You wouldn’t want to try and smoke this all in one go. A Cuban is attempting to shatter the world record for producing the world’s longest cigar, but currently looks set to fail. Cigar making king, José Castelar, has teamed up with 5 assistants and is using nearly 93 pounds of top quality tobacco to assemble a 98 foot, 30 metre cigar.

Castelar admits it will be tough to find someone able to smoke his monster creation.

Castelar learnt the art of cigar making from an uncle at the tender age of 5. Now 64 he has held the world record for longest cigars 3 times: in 2001, 2003 and april, 2005.

This is a bid to take the titke back from  it’s current holder Puerto Rican Patrick but Castelar’s creation is still 30 feet shorter  than the current record and at this stage the bid looks likely to fail.“

Vocabulary

Beat – (verb) to do better than (something).

Rolling – (verb) to turn over one or more times [no obj].

Masterpieces – (noun) something done with great skill.

Lung – (noun) either one of the two organs that people and animals use to breathe air.

Attempting – (noun)  to try to do (something) : to try to accomplish or complete (something).

Shatter – (verb) to break suddenly into many small pieces [no obj].

Looks set to – (verb) appear to be prepared for (something).

Team up – (verb) to join with someone to work together.

Assemble – (verb) to collect (things) or gather (people) into one place or group.

Admits – (verb) to say usually in an unwilling way that you accept or do not deny the truth or existence of (something).

Tough – (adjective) very difficult to do or deal with.

Bid – (verb) to offer to do work for a particular price.

Current – (adjective) always used before a noun : happening or existing now :belonging to or existing in the present time