Breaking News English

Roads in the U.K. are in such a [dire / fire] condition that one village has decided to [sock / mock] them by setting up a "pothole theme park". Pothole Land opened last week near the [remote / remoted] Welsh community of Pontfadog. Visitors to the park get to experience the [shrills / thrills] of driving [longing / along] one of the UK's thousands of [badly / worst] potholed roads. Park officials promise the park's potholes are "the deepest, longest and widest in Wales". They added [motors / motorists] will get to navigate "two kilometres of potholes, with very little actual road to [spoil / spill] the fun". Some of the potholes that [scar / stitch] the road are almost 50 cm deep. One villager joked that, "they're not potholes, they're bomb [creatures / craters] ".

Decades of underinvestment have left British roads in an [alarming / disarming] state of disrepair. It is almost impossible to go [in / on] a journey without having to [negotiate / negotiated] cratered roads, and thus risk damage to your car. A Pontfadog resident [cemented / lamented] that no repairs had been done to his village's roads in over five years. Another villager complained about repairs to her car. She said: "The [cost / price] to our cars is phenomenal." Parts of the road are almost [passe / impassable] . The conditions are so atrocious that [refute / refuse] collection drivers often [refute / refuse] to drive to the village. The U.K. government has [set / let] aside £1.6 billion ($1.95 billion) over the next two years to provide "[immediately / immediate] fixes" and to repair seven million potholes.