Maya Bay in Thailand made headlines in 1999 when Hollywood arrived there to film ¡®The Beach¡¯ starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  Since then, tourists have flooded this beach with as many as 4,000 visitors arriving on boats every day.

The mass tourism exhausted the once-pristine beach and ruined the natural life. That is why people closed the beach to tourists for four months. When it reopens by the end of September, they will impose a limit of 2,000 visitors per day.

A marine scientist said that he and the other scientists made a mistake thinking that the money from the movie was very important, but now they see that the beach is a natural resource that they have to preserve.

Zelda Tinska, an actress from the film, said that she honestly thinks that the West is a society which is obsessed with fame and celebrity. People do not visit the beach because they want to see the actual location but because there was a film shot there – and Thailand is an amazing country and there are many other beaches as beautiful as Maya Bay.

Difficult words: make headlines (was in the news), flood (come in too great numbers), pristine (untouched by people), impose (set), obsessed (in this example, when fame and celebrity are dominating people¡¯s minds).