The Queen is Dead

ESL News New Zealand

Queen Elizabeth the Second passed away on the eighth of September at age 96. Although this should not be a shock, it is hard for many people to adapt to, as she has been the queen of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth for seventy years.

Queen Elizabeth passed away in Balmoral, Scotland, and after a few days her coffin was driven to Edinburgh to rest in the throne room of the palace at Holyroodhouse until the twelfth of September, when it was brought to St Gile’s Cathedral for a day so that people could pay their respects. On the thirteenth her coffin was flown to Northholt, an airforce base near London. She was then driven to Buckingham Palace in London. On Wednesday the fourteenth of September, there was a huge procession bringing her to Westminster Hall. Heathrow airport stopped flights so that the procession could pass in silence, and thousands of people came out to pay their respects. Queen Elizabeth is currently Lying-in-State in Westminster Hall until her funeral which will be held on Monday, the nineteenth of September. During this time, members of the public can visit her coffin to pay their respects. After the funeral at Westminster Abbey on the nineteenth, her coffin will be carried in another procession to Wellington Arch and then driven to St George’s Cathedral in Windsor, where she will be laid to rest with a committal service. There will be a public holiday in New Zealand on the 26^th of September to commemorate her passing.

Queen Elizabeth is succeeded by her son, Prince Charles, who is now King Charles the Third. His wife, Camilla, will have the title of Queen Consort.

Vocabulary:

Pass away: die

Adapt: accept change

Coffin: a box that holds a dead body

Throne room: the place where a king or queen sits

Cathedral: a very big church

Pay respects: to visit someone who has died in order to say goodbye

Procession: many people walking on the road

Lie-in-State: when a dead leader is honoured by being laid in a public place so that people can pay their respects

Funeral: a ceremony to commemorate the death of a person. To commemorate means to remember someone.

Lay to rest: to place a dead body in a final place, usually by burying it in a grave

Committal service: a ceremony for laying someone to rest