Sri Lanka Wants New Partners for Airport

Apr 26, 2026, 10:00

Introduction

The government of Sri Lanka wants companies to give money to the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport.

Main Body

The airport opened in 2013. China gave money to build it. Now, the airport loses money. It does not have enough money to pay for electricity. Few planes fly here. Birds and wild animals often go on the runways. This makes the airport dangerous for planes. Sri Lanka owes a lot of money to other countries. The government wants to sell parts of the airport to get more money.

Conclusion

The government needs private companies to help. They want to stop losing money at the airport.

Vocabulary Learning

dangerous (adj.)
unsafe / something that can hurt you危險的
Example:It is dangerous to walk on the road without looking.
electricity (n.)
power / a form of energy used for lights and machines電力；電
Example:We use electricity to turn on the lights at home.
government (n.)
ruling group / the group of people who control a country政府
Example:The government makes new laws for the country.
owe (v.)
need to pay / to have to pay money to someone欠（債）
Example:I owe my friend ten dollars for the lunch.
private (adj.)
personal / not belonging to the government私營的；私人的
Example:This is a private school, not a government school.

Sentence Learning

The airport opened in 2013.
Time Marker: The phrase 'in 2013' tells us exactly when an action happened in the past.時間標記：短語「in 2013」告訴我們動作在過去發生的具體時間。
Now, the airport loses money.
Time Marker: The word 'now' is used at the start of the sentence to describe the present situation.時間標記：單詞「now」放在句首，用來描述現在的情況。
Birds and wild animals often go on the runways.
Connector: The word 'and' joins two different nouns to form a plural subject.連接詞：單詞「and」連接兩個不同的名詞，組成一個複數主語。
Sri Lanka owes a lot of money to other countries.
Prepositional Phrase: The phrase 'to other countries' uses the preposition 'to' to show the recipient.介詞短語：短語「to other countries」使用介詞「to」來表示接收者。
They want to stop losing money at the airport.
Prepositional Phrase: The phrase 'at the airport' uses 'at' to identify a specific location.介詞短語：短語「at the airport」使用「at」來確定一個特定的地點。