Notes:
grocery store 食料雑貨店;
compete 競争力を持つ
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Japan’s first convenience store is closing today. It opened in a new town outside of Nagoya in 1971. At that time, Japan had grocery stores and supermarkets, but there were no stores that were open from the morning til night. The person who opened the store got the idea from the 7-Eleven stores he saw in the U.S. He kept the store open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and it was a big success. It became the first Coco Store. Now there are convenience stores everywhere in Japan. Coco store has been bought out by another convenience store chain, and this storecan no longer compete. (by Prof. Douglas Jarrell)
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Notes:
rough diamond ダイヤモンドの原石;
Crown Jewels 《英》 (戴冠式などの時々に国王[女王]が用いる王冠など王位の象徴の)宝器類;

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How much does it cost to buy one of the world’s biggest diamonds? Lesedi la Rona is the name of a rough diamond that is the size of a tennis ball. It went on sale yesterday at an auction, but no one wanted to pay more than $61 million. The sellers didn’t want to sell it at that price, so it is still for sale. If you want it, you will probably have to pay more than $70 million! What happens to such a large diamond? The largest diamond ever found was the Cullinan. That was more than 100 years ago. The diamond was broken down into smaller diamonds for the Crown Jewels of the U.K. (by Prof.Douglas Jarrell)
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(photo from http://www.bloomberg.com/)