The first book of english readings of m.c. enrique ruiz díaz

The First Book of English Readings of M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

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The First Book of English Readings

of M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

From Document 1 to 100.

All rights reserved.

Con título y cédula profesional 5632071

en la Maestría en Ciencias de la Computación.

Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Veracruz, México.

https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/



Acerca de Mí.

Titulado en la Maestría en Ciencias en Ciencias de la Computación, Cédula

profesional 5632071. Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Ver., México.

Antes, me Titulé en la Licenciatura en Informática, Cédula profesional 4046033.

Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtepec, Oax., México, distinguiéndome

además, por ser el mejor promedio de mi generación con 98%.

Bien, regresando al tema de mi Título de Maestría en Ciencias de la Computación,

para subrayar que ésta, requirió el desarrollo de una TESIS. Otro aspecto muy

importante, fue que durante el desarrollo de mi Maestría escribí un ARTICULO,

mismo que fue aceptado para publicación y con mi ponencia en el evento 'Primer

Encuentro de Estudiantes en Ciencia de la Computación - E2C2' ISBN-10:970-36-

0404-8 e ISBN-13:978-970-36-0404-3 celebrado en el Instituto Politécnico

Nacional, México, D.F. 2007.




Mi Diploma por mi Ponencia en el Instituto Politécnico

Nacional, durante mis estudios de Maestría, México, D.F. 2007.




You have the Index at the End of this

Document.

Tú tienes el Índice al final de este

Documento.




«The more you learn, the more you earn.

The more knowledgeable you become about your field, the more courage and confidence

you will have to implement your skills in your work.

The more courage and confidence you develop, the higher will be your self-esteem and

your sense of personal power.

You will become virtually unstoppable in everything you do.

Dedicate yourself to becoming one of the most knowledgeable and competent people in

your field».

Brian Tracy.

«The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge». From the Book: Think & Grow Rich.




Texts from 1 to 10.

«The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their

commitment to excellence, no matter what their chosen field ».

—Vince Lombardi




1. Words and Their Stories: Computer Terms.

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Computer technology has become a major part of people's lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word mouse. A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields. It is a small device that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer. The mouse moves the pointer, or cursor, on the computer screen. Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen-sixties. The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the computer. Using a computer takes some training. People who are experts are sometimes called hackers. A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language. But the word hacker is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer systems.




Another well known computer word is Google, spelled g-o-o-g-l-e. It is the name of a popular "search engine" for the Internet. People use the search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l, is an extremely large number. It is the number one followed by one-hundred zeros. When you "Google" a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the Internet. If you Google someone, you might find that person's name on a blog. A blog is the shortened name for a Web log. A blog is a personal Web page. It may contain stories, comments, pictures and links to other Web sites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers. Blogs are not the same as spam. Spam is unwanted sales messages sent to your electronic mailbox. The name is based on a funny joke many years ago on a British television show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Some friends are at an eating place that only serves a processed meat product from the United States called SPAM. Every time the friends try to speak, another group of people starts singing the word SPAM very loudly. This interferes with the friends' discussion – just as unwanted sales messages interfere with communication over the Internet. This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-Computer-Terms-99686864.html


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-Computer-Terms-99686864.html

http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-Computer-Terms-99686864.html



2. How Freud Changed What People Thought About the Mind.

Sigmund Freud FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. The work and theories of Sigmund Freud continue to influence many areas of modern culture. FAITH LAPIDUS: Today, we explore Freud's influence on the treatment of mental disorders through psychotherapy. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Sigmund Freud was born May sixth, eighteen fifty-six, in Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Early in his adulthood, Freud studied medicine. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was developing some exciting new ideas about the human mind. But his first scientific publications dealt with sea animals, including the sexuality of eels. FAITH LAPIDUS: Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and reason.




He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis. He wanted to see if putting patients into a sleep-like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only temporary. Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. His method involved sitting with his patients and listening to them talk. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All ideas, thoughts and anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no holding back because of fear or guilt. BOB DOUGHTY: Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the unconscious self. He said this part of the mind contains wishes, desires and experiences too frightening to recognize. He thought that if these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the patient would again feel the pain. But this time, the person would experience the memories as an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally understand them. Using this method, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly weakened. They would lose their power over the person's physical health. Soon the patient would get better. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: Sigmund Freud proposed that the mind was divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. Under this theory, the superego acts as a restraint. It is governed by the values we learn from our parents and society. The job of the superego is to help keep the id under control. The id is completely unconscious. It provides the energy for feelings that demand the immediate satisfaction of needs and desires. The ego provides the immediate reaction to the events of reality. The ego is the first line of defense between the self and the outside world. It tries to balance the two extremes of the id and the superego. BOB DOUGHTY: Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual connections. These ideas included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their mothers and daughters toward their fathers.




If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Others came to accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health. Professor James Gray at American University in Washington, D.C. says three of Freud's major ideas are still part of modern thinking about the mind. One is the idea of the unconscious mind. Another is that we do not necessarily know what drives us to do the things we do. And the third is that we are formed more than we think in the first five years, but not necessarily the way Freud thought. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: Doctor Freud was trained as a neurologist. He treated disorders of the nervous system. But physical sickness can hide deeper problems. His studies on the causes and treatment of mental disorders helped form many ideas in psychiatry. Psychiatry is the area of medicine that treats mental and emotional conditions. Freud would come to be called the father of psychoanalysis. BOB DOUGHTY: Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy. It includes discussion and investigation of hidden fears and conflicts. Sigmund Freud used free association. He would try to get his patients to free their minds and say whatever they were thinking. He also had them talk about their dreams to try to explore their unconscious fears and desires. His version of psychoanalysis remained the one most widely used until at least the nineteen fifties. FAITH LAPIDUS: Psychoanalysis is rarely used in the United States anymore. One reason is that it takes a long time; the average length of treatment is about five years. Patients usually have to pay for the treatment themselves. Health insurance plans rarely pay for this form of therapy. Psychoanalysis has its supporters as well as its critics. Success rates are difficult to measure. Psychoanalysts say this is because each individual case is different. BOB DOUGHTY: More recently, a number of shortened versions of psychological therapy have been developed. Some examples are behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavior is actions; cognition is knowing and judging. Some patients in therapy want to learn to find satisfaction in what they do. Others want to unlearn behaviors that only add to their problems.




In these therapies, patients might talk with a therapist about the past. Or patients might be advised to think less about the past and more about the present and the future. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: Other kinds of therapy involve movement, dance, art, music or play. These are used to help patients who have trouble talking about their emotions. In many cases, therapy today costs less than it used to. But the length of treatment depends on the problem. Some therapies, for example, call for twenty or thirty visits with a therapist. How long people continue their therapy can also depend on the cost. People find that health insurance plans are often more willing to pay for short-term therapies than for longer-term treatments. BOB DOUGHTY: Mental health experts say therapy can often help patients suffering from depression, severe stress or other conditions. For some patients, they say, a combination of talk therapy and medication works best. There are many different drugs for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional disorders. Critics, however, say doctors are sometimes too quick to give medicine instead of more time for talk therapy. Again, cost pressures are often blamed. Mental health problems can affect work, school, marriage, and life in general. Yet they often go untreated. In many cases, people do not want others to know they have a problem. FAITH LAPIDUS: Mental disorders are common in all countries. The World Health Organization says hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are affected by mental, behavioral, neurological or substance use disorders. The W.H.O. says these disorders have major economic and social costs. Yet governments face difficult choices about health care spending. The W.H.O. says most poor countries spend less than one percent of their health budgets on mental health. There are treatments for most conditions. Still, the W.H.O. says there are two major barriers. One is lack of recognition of the seriousness of the problem. The other is lack of understanding of the services that exist. (MUSIC)




BOB DOUGHTY: The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, left Vienna soon after troops from Nazi Germany entered Austria in nineteen thirty-eight. The Nazis had a plan to kill all the Jews of Europe, but they permitted Freud to go to England. His four sisters remained in Vienna and were all killed in Nazi concentration camps. Freud was eighty-three years old when he died of cancer in London on September twenty-third, nineteen thirty-nine. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children, became a noted psychoanalyst herself. Before Sigmund Freud, no modern scientist had looked so deeply into the human mind. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher:

http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Sigmund-Freud-2010-04-12-90676114.html


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Sigmund-Freud-2010-04-12-90676114.html



3. National Standards for US Schools Gain Support From States.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Americans have never had national education standards. Goals for what public schools should teach are set by state and local school boards. Their members are often elected. But some Americans say the lack of national standards is wrong in a competitive global economy. Former president Bill Clinton said it was as if somehow school boards "could legislate differences in algebra or math or reading." President George W. Bush and Congress expanded federal intervention. His education law, still in effect, required states to show yearly progress in student learning as measured by the states' own tests. Now, the Obama administration supports what are known as the Common Core State Standards. These were developed in a year-long process led by state governors and chief state school officers. Texas and Alaska were the only states not to take part. The standards are in two subject areas, English-language arts and mathematics. They establish goals for each year from kindergarten through grade twelve. The aim is for students to finish high school fully prepared for college and careers.




The developers considered standards in other countries, along with almost one hundred thousand public comments. One way the Education Department is trying to persuade states is with money. States are competing to share in almost three and a half billion dollars as part of a school reform competition. They will earn extra points in the Race to the Top if they approve the standards by August second. States are trying to recover from the recession. There are concerns that some could accept the standards and then lack the money to follow them. The final standards were released June second. A new report say about half the states have approved them already. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is an education group in Washington. It says the standards are clearer and stronger than those used in three-fourths of the states. But the comparison also found that existing English standards are "clearly stronger" in California, Indiana and the District of Columbia. States that approve the new standards have a right to add up to fifteen percent of their own. In California, the State Board of Education plans to vote on August second to accept or reject a new set of standards. These are based largely on the common core, but also existing California standards.


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/National-Standards-for-US-Schools-Gain-Support--98968994.html






4. Severe Weather: How Ocean Storms Work.

BARBARA KLEIN: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we remember Hurricane Katrina and tell about the science of severe ocean storms. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: Many Americans are observing the fifth anniversary of one of the nation’s worst natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina reached the state of Louisiana on the morning of August twenty-ninth, two thousand five. It was the costliest hurricane in American history, and one of the deadliest. Radio and television programs, concerts and films are recalling the storm and its effects on the nation. Literary readings and religious observances also are marking the event.




Hurricane Katrina struck hardest in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Death and destruction from the hurricane and its effects extended along the Gulf Coast. More than one thousand eight hundred people were killed. BOB DOUGHTY: The storm formed over the Bahamas on August twenty-third, two thousand five. The next day, it grew strong enough for scientists to call it a tropical storm. Then it moved toward the United States. It first reached land in south Florida on August twenty-fifth. At that time, the National Hurricane Center said the winds were at a top continuing speed of more than one hundred thirty kilometers per hour. Experts identified the storm as a hurricane. They named it Katrina, and rated it as the least severe type of hurricane. Still, it caused flooding and killed people in Florida. BARBARA KLEIN: Hurricane Katrina weakened again after striking Florida. Later it moved to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf’s warm waters helped it gain strength. At one point, the storm’s winds were blowing at more than two hundred sixty-eight kilometers per hour. Experts increased its rating to the most severe hurricane. Time passed, and the winds again weakened. Then Hurricane Katrina reached land in Louisiana. Its speed had fallen to about two hundred kilometers per hour when it struck near New Orleans. But the wind was strong enough to pick up trees, vehicles and buildings. It threw them into the air like toys. Walls of water flooded over the land. Intense rain fell. Then Hurricane Katrina struck land again, this time at the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. Again, there was loss of life and terrible destruction. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Severe ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late summer or early autumn near the equator. Scientists call them cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean. When they happen over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, the storms are typhoons. And in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean they are called hurricanes. Ocean storms develop when the air temperature in one area is different from the temperature nearby. Warmer air rises, while cooler air falls. These movements create a difference in the pressure of the atmosphere.




BARBARA KLEIN: If the pressure changes over a large area, winds start to blow in a huge circle. High pressure air is pulled toward a low pressure center. Thick clouds form and heavy rains fall as the storm gains speed and moves over the ocean waters. Storms can get stronger as they move over warm ocean waters. The strongest, fastest winds of a hurricane blow in the area known as the eyewall. It surrounds the center, or eye, of the storm. The eye itself is calm by comparison. Wind speeds in severe ocean storms can reach more than two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Up to fifty centimeters of rain can fall. Some storms have produced more than one hundred fifty centimeters of rain. These storms also cause high waves and ocean surges. A surge is a continuous movement of water that may reach as high as six meters or more. The water strikes low coastal areas. Surges are commonly responsible for about ninety percent of all deaths from ocean storms. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, keeps watch on severe storms. It works closely with public officials and with radio and television stations to keep people informed. Experts believe this early warning system has helped reduce deaths from ocean storms in recent years. But sometimes people cannot or will not flee the path of a storm. That is what happened in many places in New Orleans. BARBARA KLEIN: Weather scientists use computer programs to create models that show where a storm might go. The programs combine information such as temperatures, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the amount of water in the atmosphere. Scientists collect the information with satellites, weather balloons and devices floating in the world's oceans. They also collect information from ships and passenger flights and from government planes. These planes fly into and around storms. The crews drop instruments attached to parachutes. The instruments report temperature, pressure, wind speed and other conditions. BOB DOUGHTY: Scientists use the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale to measure the intensity of storms based on wind speed. It provides an idea of the amount of coastal flooding and property damage that might be expected. The scale is divided into five groups or categories.




The mildest hurricane is called category one. It has winds of about one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. This storm can damage trees and lightweight structures. It can also cause flooding. Wind speeds in a category two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often powerful enough to break windows or blow the roofs off houses. Winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour represent categories three and four. An even more powerful storm is a category five hurricane. BARBARA KLEIN: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Hurricane Katrina was a strong category three hurricane when it hit land in Louisiana. But researchers say other forces than its wind speed helped cause Katrina’s extensive destruction. NOAA scientists say Katrina’s air pressure was very low. The lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm. And Katrina was also an unusually wide storm. Katrina’s most damaging power, however, came from the water it brought. The storm surge was estimated at more than six meters, and may have been as high as nine meters. BOB DOUGHTY: All this water poured into Lake Pontchartrain on the north side of New Orleans. It also flooded into the Mississippi River to the south. New Orleans was built below sea level. The city is surrounded by levees made of earth and walls made of concrete. The water and wind pressure from Katrina broke through the flood dams and destroyed many areas of New Orleans. The surge washed away large areas of the coastal cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. There was also heavy damage in Alabama. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: Some scientists believe climate change affects major storms. Some say the warming of Earth’s atmosphere is already making the storms worse. Other scientists have published studies that disagree. Earlier this year, a special World Meteorological Organization committee reported on severe storms. The committee’s work appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience. Ten scientists took part. The experts represented both sides of the debate about global warming. They reached no clear answer about whether global warming had already intensified storms. Still, the committee made some predictions.




BOB DOUGHTY: They said global warming might cause more powerful ocean storms in the future. They said the overall strength of storms measured by wind speed might increase two to eleven percent by the year twenty-one hundred. And there might be an increase in the number of the most severe storms. But there might be fewer weak and moderate storms. The current Atlantic Ocean hurricane season began in June. Weather experts say fewer severe storms than usual have struck since then. Experts had predicted above-normal numbers of storms during the season, which continues through November. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by June Simms.


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Severe-Ocean-Storms-101305319.html


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Severe-Ocean-Storms-101305319.html



5. Why Vitamins Are Important to Good Health.

Eat Fruits and Vegetables. BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about vitamins. BOB DOUGHTY: Many jobs must be done with two people. One person takes the lead. The other helps. It is this cooperation that brings success. So it is with the human body. Much of our good health depends on the cooperation between substances. When they work together, chemical reactions take place smoothly. Body systems are kept in balance. Some of the most important helpers in the job of good health are the substances we call vitamins.




FAITH LAPIDUS: The word “vitamin” dates back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk in 1912. He was studying a substance in the hull that covers rice. This substance was believed to cure a disorder called beriberi. Funk believed the substance belonged to a group of chemicals known as amines. He added the Latin word "vita," meaning life. So he called the substance a “vitamine” -- an amine necessary for life. BOB DOUGHTY: Funk was not able to separate the anti-berberi substance from the rice hulls; it was later shown to be thiamine. Other studies found that not all vitamines were amines. So the name was shortened to vitamin. But Funk was correct in recognizing their importance. Scientists have discovered 14 kinds of vitamins. They are known as vitamins A, the B group, C, D, E and K. Scientists say vitamins help to carry out chemical changes within cells. If we do not get enough of the vitamins we need in our food, we are at risk of developing a number of diseases. FAITH LAPIDUS: This brings us back to Casimir Funk. His studies of rice were part of a long search for foods that could cure disease. One of the first people involved in that search was James Lind of Scotland. In the 1740's, Lind was a doctor for the British Navy. He was investigating a problem that had existed in the Navy for many years. The problem was the disease scurvy. So many sailors had scurvy that the Navy’s fighting strength was very low. The sailors were weak from bleeding inside their bodies. Even the smallest wound would not heal. Doctor Lind thought the sailors were getting sick because they failed to eat some kinds of foods when they were at sea for many months. BOB DOUGHTY: Doctor Lind separated 12 sailors who had scurvy into two groups. He gave each group different foods to eat. One group got oranges and lemons. The other did not. The men who ate the fruit began to improve within seven days. The other men got weaker. Doctor Lind was correct. Eating citrus fruits prevents scurvy. Other doctors looked for foods to cure the diseases rickets and pellagra. They did not yet understand that they were seeing the problem from the opposite direction. That is, it is better to eat vitamin-rich foods to prevent disease instead of eating them to cure a disease after it has developed. FAITH LAPIDUS: Which foods should be eaten to keep us healthy? Let us look at some important vitamins for these answers.




Vitamin A helps prevent skin and other tissues from becoming dry. It is also needed to make a light-sensitive substance in the eyes. People who do not get enough vitamin A cannot see well in darkness. They may develop a condition that dries the eyes. This can result in infections and lead to blindness. Vitamin A is found in fish liver oil. It also is in the yellow part of eggs. Sweet potatoes, carrots and other darkly colored fruits and vegetables contain substances that the body can change into vitamin A. BOB DOUGHTY: Vitamin B-one is also called thiamine. Thiamine changes starchy foods into energy. It also helps the heart and nervous system work smoothly. Without it, we would be weak and would not grow. We also might develop beriberi. Thiamine is found not just in whole grains like brown rice, but also in other foods. These include beans and peas, nuts, and meat and fish. Another B-vitamin is niacin. It helps cells use food energy. It also prevents pellagra -- a disease that causes weakness, reddish skin and stomach problems. Niacin is found in meat, fish and green vegetables. FAITH LAPIDUS: Vitamin B-12 is needed so folic acid can do its work. Together, they help produce red blood cells. Vitamin B-12 is found naturally in foods like eggs, meat, fish and milk products. Folic acid has been shown to prevent physical problems in babies when taken by their mothers during pregnancy. Vitamin B-12 is found in green leafy vegetables and other foods, like legumes and citrus fruits. In some countries, it is added to products like bread. BOB DOUGHTY: In 2003, Japanese researchers identified a new member of the B-vitamin group. It is a substance known as pyrroloquinoline quinone, or PQQ. The researchers found that PQQ is important in the reproductive and defense systems of mice. They said the substance is similarly important for people. PQQ is found in fermented soybeans and also in parsley, green tea, green peppers and kiwi fruit. FAITH LAPIDUS: Vitamin C is needed for strong bones and teeth, and for healthy blood passages. It also helps wounds heal quickly. The body stores little vitamin C. So we must get it every day in foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and uncooked cabbage.




Vitamin D increases levels of the element calcium in the blood. Calcium is needed for nerve and muscle cells to work normally. It also is needed to build strong bones. BOB DOUGHTY: Vitamin D prevents the children’s bone disease rickets. Ultraviolet light from the sun changes a substance in the skin into vitamin D. Fish liver oil also contains vitamin D. In some countries, milk producers add vitamin D to milk so children will get enough. Vitamin K is needed for healthy blood. It thickens the blood around a cut to stop bleeding. Bacteria in the intestines normally produce vitamin K. It can also be found in pork products, liver and in vegetables like cabbage, kale and spinach. FAITH LAPIDUS: Experts agree that everyone needs vitamins so that their bodies can operate normally. In general, a complete diet should provide all the vitamins a body needs in their natural form. In addition, many foods and food products now have extra vitamins and minerals added. Some people fear they do not get enough vitamins from the foods they eat. So they take products with large amounts of vitamins. They think these products, called vitamin supplements, will improve their health and protect against disease. Many adults now take vitamin supplements every day. BOB DOUGHTY: In 2006, medical experts gathered near Washington, D.C. to discuss studies about vitamin supplements. The experts found little evidence that most supplements do anything to protect or improve health. But they noted that some do help to prevent disease. The experts said women who wish to become mothers should take folic acid to prevent problems in their babies. And, they said vitamin D supplements and calcium can protect the bones of older women. FAITH LAPIDUS: The medical experts agreed with doctors who say that people who know they lack a vitamin should take vitamin supplements. Some older adults, for example, may not have enough vitamin B-12. That is because, as people get older, the body loses its ability to take it from foods. The experts also noted that taking too much of some vitamins can be harmful. They said people should be sure to discuss what vitamins they take with their doctors. Several studies have not been able to show that taking vitamin supplements in addition to a balanced diet helps to prevent disease. One study found that older Americans do not get enough Vitamin C and required minerals. The study involved more than 6,000 individuals. More than half of them took vitamin supplements.




BOB DOUGHTY: Vitamins are important to our health. A lack of required vitamins can lead to health problems. Different vitamins are found in different foods -- grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, eggs and milk products. And even foods that contain the same vitamins may have them in different amounts. Experts say this is why it is important to eat a mixture of foods every day, to get enough of the vitamins our bodies need. FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Faith Lapidus. BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Vitamins-are-Important-to-Good-Health-102777384.html






6. After 50 Years, Lasers Have Made Their Mark.

An Announcement In relation to the Lasers and the Optical Fiber.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

This week, we tell about one of the most recognizable objects in science fiction — the laser. And we tell how the laser has made its mark in the fifty years since its invention.

STEVE EMBER: Three professional research groups have been leading a year-long celebration of the laser’s fiftieth anniversary. It is called LaserFest. The American Physical Society, the Optical Society (OSA), and SPIE, a group that supports the study of light, all have been involved. One goal is to honor the early developers of lasers who were both scientists and business leaders.

Another goal is to show the public that lasers are a great example of how scientific research can result in technology that improves economies everywhere. And LaserFest is also meant to inspire young people to take up careers in optical science and engineering.




FAITH LAPIDUS: Laser is short for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The idea behind lasers is complex. Just how complex? Consider that it took the mind of Albert Einstein to discover the physics behind the laser.

Theodore Maiman succeed in building the first working laser in nineteen sixty. Mr. Maiman worked at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

A laser fires a light beam. Before the laser, scientists developed a similar device: a maser which stands for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A maser is basically a microwave version of the laser. Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation similar to, but shorter than, radio waves. The best-known use of masers is in highly accurate clocks.

In the nineteen fifties, researchers in the United States and Russia independently developed the technology that made both masers and lasers possible. Charles Townes was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He and his students developed the first maser.

Russians Nicolay Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov did their research in Moscow. Their work led to technology important to lasers and masers. The three men received the Nobel Prize in Physics in nineteen sixty-four.

STEVE EMBER: The idea of a thin beam of light with deadly power came much earlier. By the end of the eighteen hundreds, the industrial revolution had shown that science could invent machines with almost magical powers. And some writers of the time were the first to imagine something like a laser.

In eighteen ninety-eighty, H.G. Wells published a science fiction novel called “The War of the Worlds.” In it, he described creatures from the planet Mars that had technology far beyond anything on Earth. Among their weapons was what Wells called a “heat ray.” Listen to actor Orson Welles describe the weapon in a famous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” from nineteen thirty-eight.

ORSON WELLES (PROFESSOR PIERSON): “I shall refer to the mysterious weapon as a heat ray. It's my guess that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light. That -- That is my conjecture of the origin of the heat ray.”




FAITH LAPIDUS: H.G. Wells’ description is not too far from the truth. All lasers have several things in common. They have a material that supplies electrons and a power source that lifts the energy level of those electrons. And, as Wells guessed, many lasers have mirrors that direct light.

Laser light is different from daylight or electric lights. It has one wavelength or color. Laser light is also highly organized. Light behaves like a wave and laser light launches in one orderly wave at a time from its source.

STEVE EMBER: The physics of the laser may be complex. Still, it is just a story of how electrons interact with light. When a light particle, or photon, hits an electron, the electron jumps to a higher energy state. If another photon strikes one of these high-energy electrons, the electron releases two photons that travel together at the same wavelength. When this process is repeated enough, lots of organized, or coherent, photons are produced.

In Theodore Maiman’s first laser, a rod of man-made ruby supplied the electrons. A more powerful version of the flash on a common camera was used to lift the energy state of the electrons. Mirrors on either end of the ruby rod reflected and increased the light. And an opening at one end of the rod let the laser light shoot out — just like the flash ray of science fiction hero Buck Rogers.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Industry put lasers to work almost immediately after they were invented in nineteen sixty. But weapons were not first on the list.

The first medical operation using a laser took place the year following its invention. Doctors Charles Campbell and Charles Koester used a laser to remove a tumor from a patient’s eye at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Since then, doctors have used lasers to cut and remove tissue safely with little risk of infections.

Other health uses include medical imaging and vision correction surgery. Eye surgeons use lasers in LASIK operations to reshape the cornea, which covers the lens of the eye. The reshaped cornea corrects the patient’s bad eyesight so he or she does not have to wear glasses or other corrective lenses.

STEVE EMBER: Lasers have made measurement an exact science. Astronomers have used lasers to measure the moon’s distance from Earth to within a few centimeters. Mappers and builders use laser technology every day. For example, drawing a perfectly level straight line on a construction site is easy using a laser.




Energy researchers are using lasers in an attempt to develop fusion, the same energy process that powers the sun. Scientists hope fusion can supply almost limitless amounts of clean energy in the future.

Lasers have also changed the way we communicate. It is likely that laser light on a fiber optic network carried this EXPLORATIONS program at least part of the way to you if you are reading or listening online. Super-fast Internet connections let people watch movies and send huge amounts of information at the speed of light.

Manufacturers have used lasers for years to cut and join metal parts. And the jewelry industry uses lasers to write on the surface of the world’s hardest substance, diamonds.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Since nineteen seventy-four, the public has had direct experience with lasers — at the grocery store checkout line.

Laser barcode scanners have changed how stores record almost everything. They help businesses keep track of products. They help in storage and every detail of the supply process.

Experts say no company has put barcode technology to better use than Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas. By nineteen eighty-eight, all Wal-Mart stores used laser bar code scanners. Highly detailed records on its products, and how they were selling, helped Wal-Mart keep costs down. Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest corporation.

STEVE EMBER: Lasers are found in many products used almost everywhere. Laser printers can print out forms and documents quickly and are relatively low in cost. They are required equipment for offices around the world.

If you have a CD or DVD player, you own a laser. Laser disc players use lasers to accurately read or write marks on a reflective, coated plastic disc. A device turns these optical signals into digital information that becomes music, computer software or a full-length movie.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Over one hundred years ago, writers imagined that beams of light could be powerful weapons. Today, lasers guide missiles and bombs.

For example, pilots can mark a target invisibly with a laser. Bombs or missiles then track the target with deadly results.




And, yes, American defense companies are working on giant laser guns recognizable to science fiction fans everywhere. But there are technological difficulties. Scientific American magazine says huge lasers turn only about twenty to thirty percent of the energy they use into a laser beam. The rest is lost as heat.

That has not stopped scientists from working to perfect powerful lasers that, one day, may be able to shoot missiles out of the sky.

STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher.

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7. Leonardo da Vinci: One of the Greatest Thinkers in History.

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Today, we tell about one of the greatest thinkers in the world, Leonardo da Vinci. He began his career as an artist. But his interest in the world around him drove him to study music, math, science, engineering and building design. Many of his ideas and inventions were centuries ahead of his time.

STEVE EMBER: We start with one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous drawings, called “Vitruvian Man.” This work is a good example of his ever questioning mind, and his effort to bring together art, math and science.




“Vitruvian Man” is a detailed sketch of a man’s body, which is drawn at the center of a square and circle. The man’s stretched arms and legs are in two positions, showing the range of his motion. His arms and legs touch the edges of the square and circle.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: With this drawing Leonardo was considering the size of the human body and its relationship to geometry and the writings of the ancient Roman building designer Vitruvius.

Leonardo wrote this about how to develop a complete mind: “Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

STEVE EMBER: Leonardo da Vinci spent his life studying and observing in order to develop a scientific understanding of the world. He wrote down his thoughts and project ideas in a series of small notebooks. He made drawings and explained them with detailed notes. In these notebooks, he would write the words backwards. Some experts say he wrote this way because he wished to be secretive about his findings. But others say he wrote this way because he was left-handed and writing backwards was easier and helped keep the ink from smearing.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The notebooks show many very modern ideas. Leonardo designed weapons, machines, engines, robots, and many other kinds of engineering devices. When disease spread in Milan, Leonardo designed a city that would help resist the spread of infection. He designed devices to help people climb walls, and devices to help people fly. He designed early versions of modern machines such as the tank and helicopter. Few of these designs were built during his lifetime. But they show his extraordinarily forward- thinking mind.

The notebooks also contain details about his daily life. These have helped historians learn more about the personal side of this great thinker.

STEVE EMBER: Very little is known about Leonardo’s early life. He was born in fourteen fifty-two in the town of Vinci. His father, Ser Piero da Vinci, was a legal expert. Experts do not know for sure about his mother, Caterina. But they do know that Leonardo’s parents were never married to each other. As a boy, Leonardo showed a great interest in drawing, sculpting and observing nature.

However, because Leonardo was born to parents who were not married to each other, he was barred from some studies and professions. He trained as an artist after moving to Florence with his father in the fourteen sixties.




SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: It was an exciting time to be in Florence, one of the cultural capitals of Europe. Leonardo trained with one of the city’s very successful artists, Andrea del Verrocchio. He was a painter, sculptor and gold worker. Verrocchio told his students that they needed to understand the body’s bones and muscles when drawing people.

Leonardo took his teacher’s advice very seriously. He spent several periods of his life studying the human body by taking apart and examining dead bodies. Experts say his later drawings of the organs and systems of the human body are still unequalled to this day.

STEVE EMBER: While training as an artist, Leonardo also learned about and improved on relatively new painting methods at the time. One was the use of perspective to show depth. A method called “sfumato” helped to create a cloudy effect to suggest distance. “Chiaroscuro” is a method using light and shade as a painterly effect. The artist also used oil paints instead of the traditional tempura paints used in Italy during this period.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Leonardo’s first known portrait now hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. He made this painting of a young woman named Ginevra de’Benci around fourteen seventy-four. The woman has a pale face with dark hair. In the distance, Leonardo painted the Italian countryside.

He soon received attention for his extraordinary artistic skills. Around fourteen seventy-five he was asked to draw an angel in Verrocchio’s painting “Baptism of Christ.” One story says that when Verrocchio saw Leonardo’s addition to the painting, he was so amazed by his student’s skill, that he said he would never paint again.

STEVE EMBER: Leonardo once said the following about actively using one’s mental abilities: “Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” His mind was so active that he did not often finish his many projects.

One religious painting he never finished was called “Adoration of the Magi”. He was hired to make the painting for a religious center. The complex drawing he made to prepare for the painting is very special. It shows how carefully he planned his art works. It shows his deep knowledge of geometry, volume and depth. He drew the many people in the painting without clothes so that he could make sure that their bodies would be physically correct once covered.




SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Around fourteen eighty-two, Leonardo moved to Milan. There, he worked for the city’s ruler, Ludovico Sforza. This ruler invited Leonardo to Milan not as an artist, but as a musician. Historians say Leonardo was one of the most skillful lyre players in all of Italy. But he also continued his work as a painter. He also designed everything from festivals to weapons and a sculpture for Ludovico Sforza.

STEVE EMBER: One famous work from Leonardo’s Milan period is called “Virgin of the Rocks.” It shows Jesus as a baby along with his mother, Mary, and John the Baptist also as a baby. They are sitting outside in an unusual environment. Leonardo used his careful observations of nature to paint many kinds of plants. In the background are a series of severe rock formations. This painting helped Leonardo make it clear to the ruler and people of Milan that he was a very inventive and skillful artist.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Leonardo later made his famous painting “The Last Supper” for the dining room of a religious center in Milan. He combined his studies in light, math, psychology, geometry and anatomy for this special work. He designed the painting to look like it was part of the room. The painting shows a story from the Bible in which Jesus eats a meal with his followers for the last time. Jesus announces that one of them will betray him.

The work received wide praise and many artists tried to copy its beauty. One modern art expert described Leonardo’s “Last Supper” as the foundation of western art. Unfortunately, Leonardo experimented with a new painting method for this work. The paint has suffered extreme damage over the centuries.

STEVE EMBER: In addition to the portrait of Ginevra de’Benci that we talked about earlier, Leonardo also painted several other non-religious paintings of women. One painting of Cecilia Gallerani has come to be known as “Lady with an Ermine” because of the small white animal she is holding. This woman was the lover of Milan’s ruler, Ludovico Sforza.

However, Leonardo’s most famous portrait of a woman is called the “Mona Lisa.” It is now in the collection of the Louvre museum in Paris. He painted this image of Lisa Gherardini starting around fifteen-oh-three. She was the wife of a wealthy businessman from Florence named Francesco del Giocondo. It is from him that the painting takes its Italian name, “La Gioconda.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Lisa Gherardini is sitting down with her hands crossed in her lap. She looks directly at the painter. She seems to be smiling ever so slightly. A great deal of mystery surrounds the painting. Experts are not sure about how or why Leonardo came to paint the work. But they do know that he never gave it to the Giocondo family. He kept the painting with him for the rest of his life, during his travels through France and Italy.




Leonardo da Vinci died in France in fifteen nineteen. A friend who was with him at his death said this of the great man’s life: “May God Almighty grant him eternal peace. Every one laments the loss of a man, whose like Nature cannot produce a second time.”

STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Leonardo-da-Vinci-One-of-the-Greatest-Thinkers-in-History-102911564.html






8. Crime and Punishment.

Logo of the FBI. STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember. BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. This list includes a picture and description of people suspected of crimes so that the public can help provide information leading to their arrest. The idea was that if the public knew what a criminal looked like, it would be harder for that person to hide. Since its beginnings sixty years ago, four hundred ninety-four criminals have been placed on the “Top Ten List.” Four hundred and sixty-three of these criminals have been found. Today we tell about this special list. And we visit a museum in Washington that helps people learn more about crimes and investigations.




STEVE EMBER: The beginning of the “Ten Most Wanted” list dates to nineteen forty-nine. A reporter for United Press International called the FBI and asked them for the names of the “toughest guys” that the agency wanted to capture. The FBI provided the reporter with a list of ten criminals it believed to be the most dangerous. This list was then published on the front page of the Washington Daily News. The list received wide public attention. And the help of the American public soon led to several arrests. The director of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, made the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list a permanent program in nineteen fifty. BARBARA KLEIN: Over the years, the kinds of criminals on the list have changed. During the nineteen fifties, the “Top Ten” list mostly included escaped prisoners, suspected murderers or people who stole money from banks. During the nineteen sixties, the list included kidnappers, criminals suspected of sabotage and those who stole government property. Today, the list includes people suspected of crimes including terrorism, drug dealing, financial wrongdoing and murder. The most widely known person currently on the list is al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. STEVE EMBER: A suspect must meet two requirements to be on the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. He or she must be considered a threat to society. And, the FBI must believe that wide publicity about the criminal might help lead to an arrest. A suspect is removed from the list if he or she is captured, found dead or surrenders. Suspects can also be removed from the list if the federal case against them is dismissed or if they are no longer believed to meet the “Top Ten” requirements. Once a suspect is removed, a new suspect is placed on the list. BARBARA KLEIN: The first woman to be on the “Top Ten” list was Ruth Eisemann-Schier. In nineteen sixty-eight she and her boyfriend kidnapped a wealthy young woman in the state of Georgia. After committing the crime, Eisemann-Schier fled the area. She changed her name and moved to the state of Oklahoma. But she applied for a job that required the prints of her fingertips be taken. An official noted that her fingerprints matched those of a wanted criminal. Eisemann-Schier was arrested. She admitted she was guilty of the crime and was sentenced to seven years in prison. She served four years, then was sent back to her native country of Honduras. So far, eight “Top Ten” suspects have been women.




STEVE EMBER: The FBI has studied how “Top Ten” criminals have been caught over the past twenty years. It says citizen cooperation after publicity about the crime has resulted in the capture of about forty percent of the suspected criminals. The agency says the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” program uses many kinds of media to gain public attention. These include newspapers, wanted signs, and television news and crime shows. Of these, the popular television show “America’s Most Wanted” is responsible for the largest number of criminals captured. BARBARA KLEIN: To learn more about crime investigation, we visited the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington. A lawyer and businessman from Florida, John Morgan, owns and operates the museum. He was influenced to open the museum after a visit to Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, California. Mister Morgan opened the museum in partnership with John Walsh. He is the host of the television show “America’s Most Wanted.” Parts of this program are recorded in a studio in the Museum of Crime and Punishment. “America’s Most Wanted” tells about people who are suspected of crimes. People watching the show are asked to telephone if they have information that could help capture the criminals. STEVE EMBER: The Museum of Crime and Punishment has exhibits that explain how experts gather evidence at the place where a crime is committed. Some of the professionals who examine evidence gathered during criminal investigations are called forensic scientists. These experts use chemistry, physics, anthropology, biology and other sciences to study the clues surrounding a crime. This evidence can be used by investigators who are working to solve the crime and as proof in a court of law. BARBARA KLEIN: When crime scene investigators arrive at the place of a crime, they first try to make sure the area is secure. They must make sure that nothing in the area gets moved or touched. This could weaken or change any evidence. The investigators also document all evidence by taking photographs and drawing pictures of what they see. Then they collect the evidence and carefully document and transport it so that it can be further examined in a laboratory. STEVE EMBER: What are some of the clues investigators might look for? Fingerprints are one important clue in a crime scene. No two people have the same fingerprints, so they are useful in identifying suspects. Fingerprints are sometimes very easy to see. For example, a murderer might have blood or dirt on his or her hands which leaves prints on the wall. Investigators sometimes use chemicals and special lighting to uncover fingerprints that cannot be seen with the eye alone. BARBARA KLEIN: The criminal might also leave his or her shoe prints. Experts can discover the manufacturer of the shoe. They can also tell about a person’s height and the way he or she walks.




A suspect might also leave behind hairs or some kind of body fluid such as blood. DNA testing can then reveal the suspect’s identity. If the crime involves a murder, the body itself holds many clues. Medical examiners can give important information about how the victim died. They study wounds and chemical tests to find out if the victim died accidentally or not. They can tell if a wound was created by the victim or by another person. And, they can discover the time of death to see if it matches information given by suspects and witnesses. STEVE EMBER: Visitors to the Museum of Crime and Punishment can learn more about blood and its importance in an investigation. They can attend a Crime Scene Investigation workshop. During these events, a trained expert talks to museum visitors and leads an experiment. We attended one that was taught by a graduate student from George Washington University’s Forensic Science Department. For example, she discussed how investigators can learn a great deal from the shape of the blood drops found at a crime scene. A circular blood drop could mean the blood fell directly downward. But blood drops with long tails can tell a great deal about the direction, speed and angle of the blood’s starting point. LARISSA: “That tail tells you the direction the blood was travelling. So if your tail is pointing that way, which direction was your blood going?” BARBARA KLEIN: This information can show what kind of weapon was used in a murder. And it can show from what position the murderer killed a victim. LARISSA: “Now if you look at that bottom picture on your pages, you’ll see that you can measure the length and the width of that spatter droplet, right? You can actually calculate the angle at which that blood hit your surface.” For this workshop, Larissa used red paint to show how different murder weapons can leave different patterns of blood. But she says in a real lab, experts would use pig blood to conduct their tests. Pig blood is very close in thickness to human blood. But it is safer for the scientists to use. She also shows how the chemical Luminol can reveal hidden blood stains that the eye alone cannot see. This workshop shows that it takes a deep understanding of science to lead a crime scene investigation. And, the job requires careful attention to detail, because even the smallest observation can lead to solving a crime.




STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Crime-and-Punishment-92804829.html


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9. How Nine Researchers Won Their Nobel Prizes.

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. And I'm Mario Ritter. Today, we will tell about the two thousand nine Nobel Prizes for discoveries in science. We also will tell about progress against acquired immune deficiency syndrome, better known as AIDS. The Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine are to be presented in Sweden this week. The winners were chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. They will receive their prizes at ceremonies in Stockholm on December tenth. The winners in each area of science will share a prize valued at one million four hundred thousand dollars. Nobel week is a busy time in the Swedish capital. The winners make speeches, meet with reporters and attend parties. But the most important event is when the King of Sweden presents the honorees with their awards. Among those expected to accept their prizes are Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak. They share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This year, it is presented for solving a problem in biology.




The three honorees are working in the United States. Elizabeth Blackburn does her research at the University of California in San Francisco. Carol Greider works at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland. Jack Szostak works from the Harvard University Medical School, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says it is honoring the researchers for showing how telomeres and the enzyme that makes them protect chromosomes. A telomere is a structure of genetic material. Telomerase is the enzyme in the body that builds the telomeres. A chromosome contains molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA. This material carries the genetic information that makes us who we are. A telomere is at each end of a chromosome. Telomeres are necessary for a cell to divide. The identification of telomeres about twenty years ago helped scientists understand how cells operate. But it was a finding that did not at first seem important to everyday life. Scientists now know that telomeres are involved in two subjects of widespread interest – aging and cancer. The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were involved in the findings. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered the exact order of genetic information that protects chromosomes from ruin. They found that cells age if telomeres are shortened. For example, the first genetic copy of a sheep had shortened telomeres. The cloned animal started to suffer from arthritis at an age that some experts thought was unusually early for a sheep. Miz Blackburn and Carol Greider identified the enzyme telomerase. Cells do not die as fast if a lot of telomerase is produced, so aging is slowed. But studies suggest that cancer cells may use telomerase to divide in abnormal ways. The winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine are all American citizens. Mister Szostak came to the United States from England. Miz Blackburn was born in Australia and is also an Australian citizen. Another woman, an Israeli, is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She is Ada Yonath of the Weitzmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She is sharing the prize with two male researchers. They are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University in England, and Thomas Steitz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Mister Ramakrishnan is a British citizen, and Mister Steitz is an American.




The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is honoring all three researchers for studies of the structure and operation of a kind of cell called a ribosome. The Academy said the three were chosen for having shown what a ribosome looks like and how it operates at the atomic level. The researchers demonstrated how information in pieces of DNA is translated into the thousands of proteins contained in living matter. Each researcher worked independently. They made maps that placed hundreds of thousands of atoms in the ribosomes. Some of their work involved X-rays produced by particle accelerators, devices that bring atomic particles into high energies. The Royal Swedish Academy says the DNA in cells contains the designs for how people, plants and bacteria look and operate. But if there were nothing beyond the DNA in cells, life could not exist. Ribosomes change the design into living matter of all kinds. They make proteins including oxygen-carrying blood substances, antibodies to protect against disease, and substances that break down sugar. Many antibiotic medicines currently in use block bacterial ribosomes from action. Bacteria cannot survive without bacterial ribosomes. Each Nobel Prize winner showed how ribosomes tie or bind with antibiotics. The Academy says new medicines could result from the work of the Nobel Prize winners in chemistry. The Nobel Prize in Physics is going to three scientists who brought the light of knowledge to the subject of light. Half the prize money will go to Charles K. Kao. He did his award-winning work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China and at the Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Britain. The other two winners are Willard Boyle and George Smith. They did their research at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Mister Boyle and Mister Smith will share the remaining prize money equally. Mister Kao discovered how to transmit, or send, light signals over long distances through optical glass fibers. He learned to get light to go far enough down a glass fiber to pass on signals. The signals can travel great distances. His work has made possible the development of communications carried around the world by the Internet.




When Mister Kao began his research twenty years ago, fiber optic materials already existed. But they were short by comparison with today. Mister Kao's work helped result in the fact that, if lined up, the current optical cables would make a fiber more than nine hundred sixty-five million kilometers long. Mister Boyle and Mister Smith invented the charge-coupled device, or CCD. The device can turn light into electrical signals. It provided technology for telescopes, medical images and digital cameras. The Royal Swedish Academy says the researchers' work has made possible great developments in those areas. For example, doctors are able to use better instruments to examine organs in the body. And, many people now use cameras that do not require film. Mister Kao was born in Shanghai, China. He is a citizen of the United States and Britain. Mister Boyle was born in Canada and is a citizen of Canada and the United States. Mister Smith is an American. December first was World AIDS Day. A new report about AIDS and the virus responsible for the disease provided some reason to celebrate. Experts say the number of new H.I.V. infections has fallen by seventeen percent since two thousand one. H.I.V. is short for the human immunodeficiency virus. The experts say estimates of new H.I.V. infections are down by about fifteen percent in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. And, new infections have decreased almost twenty-five percent in East Asia. In Eastern Europe, the number of new H.I.V. infections has leveled off. But new infections appear to be rising again in some countries. The numbers come from a report by the UNAIDS program and the World Health Organization. It says H.I.V.-related deaths appear to have reached their highest level in two thousand four. Since then, deaths have fallen by around ten percent as more people have received treatment. Experts credit the good news in the report, at least in part, to prevention programs. Yet treatments and population growth mean that more people than ever are living with H.I.V. The latest estimates say almost thirty-three million five hundred thousand have the virus. There were two million AIDS-related deaths last year, and two million seven hundred thousand new infections.




This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Doug Johnson. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or , ask for it to the teacher: http://unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2009/12/08/0045/


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10. The Color of Money: America’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing Produces Millions of Dollars a Day.

Dollars. BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Today on our program, we visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. to hear how American dollars are made. In two thousand nine, the Bureau produced about twenty-six million bills a day. Producing money requires both artistic and technological skills. Dollar bills are made so that they are interesting to look at but very hard to copy. In total, there are sixty-five separate steps required to make a dollar bill.




BARBARA KLEIN: Guided tours of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are a popular activity for visitors to Washington, D.C. These trips are a good way to learn new and interesting facts about the history of money and its complex production methods. It is also exciting to stand in a room with millions of dollars flying through machines. TOUR GUIDE: "All right, ladies and gentlemen, once again welcome to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. And this is where the color of money begins. The money making process begins when a yearly order sent by the Federal Reserve Board. That order will then be divided in half. Half will be done here in Washington, D.C. and the other half will be done in Fort Worth, Texas.” STEVE EMBER: Next, the Bureau orders special paper from the Crane Paper Company in the state of Massachusetts. The paper is actually cloth since it is seventy-five percent cotton and twenty-five percent linen. This paper is made so that it can last a long time. And, it is made with details that make it hard to copy. For example, bills contain security threads. These narrow pieces of plastic are inside the paper and run along the width of the bill. This special paper is also made with very small blue and red fibers. Both of these designs make it very hard to copy. BARBARA KLEIN: The first step in production is called intaglio printing. This is done on high-speed presses using printing plates onto which images have been cut. Each plate receives a layer of ink, which gathers in the cut areas of the plate. Then, each piece of paper goes into the press to receive the printing plate. The machine forces about twenty tons of pressure onto the printing plate and paper. One side of a dollar bill is colored with green ink, while the other is printed in black. Each side must dry for about forty-eight hours. STEVE EMBER: The printing plate used in this process is created from hand-cut engravings called master-dies. Highly skilled artists called engravers copy images on soft steel to make the dies. There are separate dies for the different images on the bill, such as the picture of the president, the lettering and other designs. BARBARA KLEIN: After each master-die is copied, they are put together to make a printing plate that has thirty-two copies of the bill being printed. A master-die can last for many years. For example, the master-die with the picture of President Abraham Lincoln was made in the eighteen sixties. It was used again in two thousand eight to redesign the five-dollar bill. Next, the large printed sheets are carefully examined to make sure there are no mistakes on any of the bills. This process used to be done by people. Now, computers do the work.




TOUR GUIDE: "OCIS is an acronym for Off-line Currency Inspection System and this is where the money from the last phase will be inspected. Now that blue box will take a picture to size of the sheets of the money and compare its cut, color and shape with the master image sent by the Federal Reserve Board. It will take that picture and break it down into over one million pixels. Every single last one has to be absolutely correct." STEVE EMBER: In this part of production, the thirty-two bill sheets are cut into sheets of sixteen. In the next step, a series of identifying numbers and seals are added to the bills. TOUR GUIDE: “And this is where the money from the last phase will be put to its final state. If you look to the left of the room, ladies and gentlemen, there is a tall machine with green ink at the top of it. That is the machine that will print your serial numbers, Federal Reserve seal and Treasury seal onto the money.” BARBARA KLEIN: The serial numbers on the money tell the order that the bills were printed. Other numbers and letters on the bill tell when the note was printed, what space on the printing plate the bill occupied and which Reserve Bank will issue the bill. STEVE EMBER: Once the money is printed, guillotine cutters separate the sheets into two notes, then into individual notes. The notes are organized in “bricks,” each of which contains forty one-hundred-note packages. The bricks then go to one of twelve Federal Reserve Districts, which then give the money to local banks. Ninety-five percent of the bills printed each year are used to replace money that is in circulation, or that has already been removed from circulation. The Federal Reserve decides when to release this new money into use. BARBARA KLEIN: You may know that America's first president, George Washington, is pictured on the one-dollar bill. But do you know whose face is on the two, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one hundred-dollar bills? They are, in order, President Thomas Jefferson, President Abraham Lincoln, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, President Andrew Jackson, President Ulysses Grant and statesman Benjamin Franklin. STEVE EMBER: During the tour, visitors can learn many facts about money. For example, the average life span of a one-dollar bill is twenty-one months. But a ten-dollar bill lasts only about eighteen months. The one hundred-dollar note lasts the longest, eighty-nine months. One popular question that visitors ask is about the two-dollar bill. This bill is not made very often. This is because many Americans believe two-dollar bills are lucky, so they keep them. Two-dollar bills do not have to be manufactured often because they do not become damaged quickly like other bills.




People can send their damaged or torn bills to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Bureau will replace damaged bills with new bills. However, it is illegal to purposely damage United States currency in any way. Anyone found guilty of damaging American money can be fined or jailed. BARBARA KLEIN: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing first began printing money in eighteen sixty-one. It operated in a room of the Treasury building. Two men and four women worked together there to place seals on money that was printed in other places by private companies. Today, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has over two thousand employees in its two printing centers in Washington and Texas. STEVE EMBER: The Treasury Department continually works to change the design of bills to make it difficult to copy. One method it uses is called microprinting. For example, what looks like a very thin line around the edge of a picture may actually be the words “The United States of America” in very small letters. Also, many bills now have color-shifting ink that looks like metallic paint. In the last five years, the ten, twenty and fifty-dollar bills have been redesigned. All the bills are mostly green. But other colors are added when they are redesigned. BARBARA KLEIN: The most recent note to be redesigned is the one hundred-dollar bill. This is the highest value bill currently made in the United States. More than ten years of research and development went into its new security features. They offer a simple way to make sure that a new one hundred-dollar note is real. For example, there is a blue ribbon woven into the front of the note. If you tilt the note back and forth while looking at the blue ribbon, you will see bells on the note change to hundreds as they move. When you tilt the note back and forth, the bells and the hundreds move from side to side. If you tilt it from side to side, they move up and down. STEVE EMBER: There is also an image of a bell inside a copper-colored inkwell on the front of the note. Tilt the note to see the bell change from copper to green. This makes the bell seem to appear and disappear within the inkwell. There are several other security features in the redesigned one hundred-dollar bill. Last month, the Federal Reserve Board announced a delay in releasing the new one-hundred dollar notes. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing identified a problem with creasing of the paper during printing. The new bills were supposed to be released February tenth, two thousand eleven. The Bureau is working to solve the problem.




BARBARA KLEIN: Our program was written by Dana Demange and Shelley Gollust. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Barbara Klein. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/The-Color-of-Money-Americas-Bureau-of-Engraving-and-Printing-Produces-Millions-of-Dollars-a-Day-107973739.html


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Texts from 11 to 20.

«Every man has become great; every successful man has

succeeded, in proportion as he has confined his powers to one

particular channel».

— Orison Swett Marden.




11. A Rolling History of Americans on the Move.

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, travel back in time to explore the history of transportation in the United States. In eighteen-hundred, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president. Jefferson had a wish. He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. He wanted to build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country. At that time the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent. Jefferson proposed that a group of explorers travel across North America in search of such a waterway. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from eighteen-oh-three to eighteen-oh-six. They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land. They also found no coast-to-coast waterway. So Jefferson decided that a different transportation system would best connect American communities. This system involved roads, rivers and railroads. It also included the digging of waterways.




By the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, dirt roads had been built in parts of the nation. The use of river steamboats increased. Boats also traveled along man-made canals which strengthened local economies. The American railroad system began. Many people did not believe train technology would work. In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States. In nineteenth-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel. Trains also found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman. In eighteen-seventy-six, the United States celebrated its one-hundredth birthday. By now, there were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities. The flow of business changed. Lives improved. Within those first one-hundred years, transportation links had helped form a new national economy. Workers finished the first coast-to-coast railroad in eighteen-sixty-nine. Towns and cities could develop farther away from major waterways and the coasts. But, to develop economically, many small communities had to build links to the railroads. Railroads helped many industries, including agriculture. Farmers had a new way to send wheat and grain to ports. From there, ships could carry the goods around the world. Trains had special container cars with ice to keep meat, milk and other goods cold for long distances on their way to market. People could now get fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Locally grown crops could be sold nationally. Farmers often hired immigrant workers from Asia and Mexico to plant, harvest and pack these foods. By the early nineteen hundreds, American cities had grown. So, too, had public transportation. The electric streetcar became a common form of transportation. These trolleys ran on metal tracks built into streets. Soon, however, people began to drive their own cars. Nelson Jackson and his friend, Sewall Crocker, were honored as the first to cross the United States in an automobile. Their trip in nineteen-oh-three lasted sixty-three days. And it was difficult. Mainly that was because few good roads for driving existed.




But the two men, and their dog Bud, also had trouble with their car and with the weather. Yet, they proved that long-distance travel across the United States was possible. The trip also helped fuel interest in the American automobile industry. By nineteen thirty, more than half the families in America owned an automobile. For many, a car became a need, not simply an expensive toy. To deal with the changes, lawmakers had to pass new traffic laws and rebuild roads. Cars also needed businesses to service them. Gas stations, tire stores and repair centers began to appear. Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work. The open highway came to represent independence and freedom. During the nineteen twenties and thirties, the most traveled road in the United States was Route Sixty-Six. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. It was considered the "people's highway." The writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the "Mother Road" in his book "The Grapes of Wrath." Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. They came from the middle of the country. They moved West in search of work and a better life. In nineteen forty-six, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route Sixty-Six." World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. Soldiers came home and started families. Businesses started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing. Most families in these growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around. Buses also became popular. The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening of many downtown areas. City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support downtown development. Underground train systems also became popular in the nineteen fifties. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane. But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no state-to-state highway system. In nineteen fifty-six Congress passed a law called the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Engineers designed a sixty-five-thousand kilometer system of roads. They designed highways to reach every city with a population over one-hundred-thousand.




The major work on the Interstate Highway System was completed around nineteen ninety. It cost more than one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. It has done more than simply make a trip to see family in another state easier. It has also led to the rise of the container trucking industry. The American transportation system started with horses and boats. It now includes everything from container trucks to airplanes to motorcycles. Yet, in some ways, the system has been a victim of its own success. Many places struggle with traffic problems as more and more cars fill the roads. And a lot of people do not just drive cars anymore. They drive big sport utility vehicles and minivans and personal trucks. For others, hybrid cars are the answer. Hybrids use both gas and electricity. They save fuel and reduce pollution. But pollution is not the only environmental concern with transportation. Ease of travel means development can spread farther and farther. And that means the loss of natural areas. Yet, every day, Americans depend on their transportation system to keep them, and the largest economy in the world, on the move. The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has a transportation exhibition that explores the connection to the economic, social and cultural development of the United States. And you can experience it all on the Internet at americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u. Again, the address is americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u. (americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition). Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/





12. Isaac Newton: One of the World’s Greatest Scientists.

STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the world's greatest scientists, Isaac Newton. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Much of today's science of physics is based on Newton's discovery of the three laws of motion and his theory of gravity. Newton also developed one of the most powerful tools of mathematics. It is the method we call calculus. Late in his life, Newton said of his work: "If I saw further than other men, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants. " STEVE EMBER: One of those giants was the great Italian scientist, Galileo. Galileo died the same year Newton was born. Another of the giants was the Polish scientist Nicholas Copernicus. He lived a hundred years before Newton. Copernicus had begun a scientific revolution. It led to a completely new understanding of how the universe worked. Galileo continued and expanded the work of Copernicus.




Isaac Newton built on the ideas of these two scientists and others. He found and proved the answers for which they searched. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England, on December twenty-fifth, sixteen forty-two. He was born early. He was a small baby and very weak. No one expected him to survive. But he surprised everyone. He had one of the most powerful minds in history. And he lived until he was eighty-four. Newton's father died before he was born. His mother married again a few years later. She left Isaac with his grandmother. The boy was not a good student. Yet he liked to make things, such as kites and clocks and simple machines. STEVE EMBER: Newton also enjoyed finding new ways to answer questions or solve problems. As a boy, for example, he decided to find a way to measure the speed of the wind. On a windy day, he measured how far he could jump with the wind at his back. Then he measured how far he could jump with the wind in his face. From the difference between the two jumps, he made his own measure of the strength of the wind. Strangely, Newton became a much better student after a boy kicked him in the stomach. The boy was one of the best students in the school. Newton decided to get even by getting higher marks than the boy who kicked him. In a short time, Newton became the top student at the school. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Newton left school to help on the family farm. It soon became clear, however, that the boy was not a good farmer. He spent his time solving mathematical problems, instead of taking care of the crops. He spent hours visiting a bookstore in town, instead of selling his vegetables in the market. An uncle decided that Newton would do better as a student than as a farmer. So he helped the young man enter Cambridge University to study mathematics. Newton completed his university studies five years later, in sixteen sixty-five. He was twenty-two years old.




STEVE EMBER: At that time, a deadly plague was spreading across England. To escape the disease, Newton returned to the family farm. He did more thinking than farming. In doing so, he found the answers to some of the greatest mysteries of science. Newton used his great skill in mathematics to form a better understanding of the world and the universe. He used methods he had learned as a boy in making things. He experimented. Then he studied the results and used what he had learned to design new experiments. Newton's work led him to create a new method in mathematics for measuring areas curved in shape. He also used it to find how much material was contained in solid objects. The method he created became known as integral calculus. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One day, sitting in the garden, Newton watched an apple fall from a tree. He began to wonder if the same force that pulled the apple down also kept the moon circling the Earth. Newton believed it was. And he believed it could be measured. He called the force "gravity." He began to examine it carefully. He decided that the strength of the force keeping a planet in orbit around the sun depended on two things. One was the amount of mass in the planet and the sun. The other was how far apart they were. STEVE EMBER: Newton was able to find the exact relationship between distance and gravity. He multiplied the mass of one space object by the mass of the other. Then he divided that number by the square of their distance apart. The result was the strength of the gravity force that tied them to each other. Newton proved his idea by measuring how much gravity force would be needed to keep the moon orbiting the Earth. Then he measured the mass of the Earth and the moon, and the distance between them. He found that his measurement of the gravity force produced was not the same as the force needed. But the numbers were close. Newton did not tell anyone about his discovery. He put it aside to work on other ideas. Later, with correct measurements of the size of the Earth, he found that the numbers were exactly the same. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Newton spent time studying light and colors. He used a three-sided piece of glass called a prism.




He sent a beam of sunlight through the prism. It fell on a white surface. The prism separated the beam of sunlight into the colors of a rainbow. Newton believed that all these colors -- mixed together in light -- produced the color white. He proved this by letting the beam of rainbow-colored light pass through another prism. This changed the colored light back to white light. STEVE EMBER: Newton's study of light led him to learn why faraway objects seen through a telescope do not seem sharp and clear. The curved glass lenses at each end of the telescope acted like prisms. They produced a circle of colored light around an object. This created an unclear picture. A few years later, Newton built a different kind of telescope. It used a curved mirror to make faraway objects seem larger. Light reflected from the surface of the mirror, instead of passing through a curved glass lens. Newton's reflecting telescope produced much clearer pictures than the old kind of telescope. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Years later, the British astronomer Edmund Halley visited Newton. He said he wanted Newton's help in finding an answer to a problem no one had been able to solve. The question was this: What is the path of a planet going around the sun? Newton immediately gave Halley the answer: an egg-shaped path called an ellipse. Halley was surprised. He asked for Newton's proof. Newton no longer had the papers from his earlier work. He was able to recreate them, however. He showed them to Halley. He also showed Halley all his other scientific work. STEVE EMBER: Halley said Newton's scientific discoveries were the greatest ever made. He urged Newton to share them with the world. Newton began to write a book that explained what he had done. It was published in sixteen eighty-seven. Newton called his book “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” The book is considered the greatest scientific work ever written. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In his book, Newton explains the three natural laws of motion. The first law is that an object not moving remains still. And one that is moving continues to move at an unchanging speed, so long as no outside force influences it. Objects in space continue to move, because nothing exists in space to stop them. Newton's second law of motion describes force. It says force equals the mass of an object, multiplied by the change in speed it produces in an object.




His third law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. STEVE EMBER: From these three laws, Newton was able to show how the universe worked. He proved it with easily understood mathematics. Scientists everywhere accepted Newton's ideas. The leading English poet of Newton's time, Alexander Pope, honored the scientist with these words: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, --'Let Newton be!' - and all was light. " SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley. This is Shirley Griffith. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/science-technology/Isaac-Newton-One-of-the-Worlds-Greatest-Scientists-122892079.html


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13. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882: A Great 19th Century Writer and Philosopher.

Ralph Waldo Emerson. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I’m Shirley Griffith. STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of nineteenth century philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation's politics, Emerson did for its culture.




When he began writing and speaking in the eighteen thirties, conservatives saw him as radical -- wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence -- a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson. STEVE EMBER: Ralph Waldo Emerson's life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers -- Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. He once said that the shortest books are those about the lives of people with great minds. Emerson was not speaking about himself. Yet his own life proves the thought. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Emerson was born in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts, in eighteen oh three. Boston was then the capital of learning in the United States. Emerson's father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eleven years old, his father died. Missus Emerson was left with very little money to raise her five sons. After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson's aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. STEVE EMBER: Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University. For a few years, he taught in a girls' school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In eighteen thirty-one, Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as the minister of his church because of a minor religious issue. What really troubled him was something else. It was his growing belief that a person could find God without the help of an organized church. He believed that God is not found in systems and words, but in the minds of people. He said that God in us worships God.




Emerson traveled to Europe the following year. He talked about his ideas with the best-known European writers and thinkers of his time. When he returned to the United States, he married and settled in Concord. Then he began his life as a writer and speaker. STEVE EMBER: Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book, Nature, in Eighteen thirty-six. It made conservatives see him as a revolutionary. But students at Harvard University liked the book and invited him to speak to them. His speech, "The American Scholar," created great excitement among the students. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence -- a declaration of the independence of the mind. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: "Give me an understanding of today's world," he told them, "and you may have the worlds of the past and the future. Show me where God is hidden...as always...in nature. What is near explains what is far. A drop of water is a small ocean. Each of us is a part of all of nature." Emerson said a sign of the times was the new importance given to each person. "The world," he said, "is nothing. The person is all. In yourself is the law of all nature." Emerson urged students to learn directly from life. He told them, "Life is our dictionary." STEVE EMBER: The following year, Emerson was invited to speak to students and teachers at the Harvard religious school. In his speech, he called for moral and spiritual rebirth. But his words shocked members of Harvard's traditional Christian church. He said churches treated religion as if God were dead. "Let mankind stand forevermore," he said, "as a temple returned to greatness by new love, new faith, new sight." Church members who heard him speak called him a man who did not believe in God. Almost thirty years passed before Harvard invited Emerson to speak there again. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Away from Harvard, Emerson's speeches became more and more popular. He was able to make his living by writing and speaking. "Do you understand Mister Emerson?" a Boston woman asked her servant. "Not a word," the servant answered. "But I like to go and see him speak. He stands up there and looks as if he thought everyone was as good as he was." Many people, especially the young, did understand Emerson. His ideas seemed right for a new country just beginning to enjoy its independence -- a country expanding in all directions.




Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done. STEVE EMBER: In a speech called "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson told his listeners, "Believe your own thoughts, believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men." Emerson said society urges us to act carefully. This, he said, restricts our freedom of action. "It is always easy to agree," he said. "Yet nothing is more holy than the independence of your own mind. Let a person know his own value. Have no regrets. Nothing can bring you peace but yourselves." SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The eighteen fifties were not a peaceful time for America. The nation was divided by a bitter argument about slavery. Most people in the South defended slavery. They believed the agricultural economy of the South depended on Negro slaves. Most people in the North condemned slavery. They believed it was wrong for one man to own another. Emerson was not interested in debates or disputes. But he was prepared to defend truth, as he saw it. Emerson believed that the slaves should be freed. But he did not take an active part in the anti-slavery movement. All his beliefs about the individual opposed the idea of group action -- even group action against slavery. As the dispute became more intense, however, Emerson finally, quietly, added his voice to the anti-slavery campaign. When one of his children wrote a school report about building a house, he said no one should build a house without a place to hide runaway slaves. STEVE EMBER: Emerson's health began to fail in the early eighteen seventies. His house was partly destroyed by fire. He and his wife escaped. But the shock was great. Friends gave him money to travel to Egypt with his daughter. While he was gone, they rebuilt his house. Emerson returned to Concord. But his health did not improve. He could no longer work. In April, eighteen eighty-two, he became sick with pneumonia. He died on April twenty-seventh. He was seventy-nine years old. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Ralph Waldo Emerson's death was national news. In Concord and other places, people hung black cloth on houses and public buildings as a sign of mourning. His friends in




Concord walked to the church for his funeral service. They carried branches of the pine trees that Emerson loved. After the funeral, Ralph Waldo Emerson was buried in Concord near the graves of two other important early American writers -- Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (MUSIC) STEVE EMBER: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Steve Ember. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. Correction: An earlier headline mistakenly described Ralph Waldo Emerson as a "twentieth century" figure. As the story notes, he lived in the nineteenth century. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Ralph-Waldo-Emerson-1803-1882-A-Great-Writer-and-Philosopher-of-the-Twentieth-Century.html


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14. Economy Pushes Spanish to Learn English.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Spain is struggling with a recession. More than one in five Spaniards are out of work. Unemployment is the highest of the seventeen nations that use the euro. But one area of the economy that seems to be doing well is English classes. A report this year from the EF Education First company listed Spain is a "low proficiency" country in English. Spain ranked just below Italy and just above Taiwan. About a fifth of the world speaks Spanish. There are many Spanish language TV shows and movies. Spaniards can also watch Hollywood movies dubbed in Spanish or news from Latin America. One of the few English voices on Spanish TV belongs to Richard Vaughan.




RICHARD VAUGHAN: "Hello and welcome back to another half-hour segment of Cloverdale's Corner. Today is Tuesday, and Lourdes has had to leave but we still have four people here ... " Richard Vaughan is from Texas but for thirty-five years has lived in Spain. He operates that country's biggest English teaching company. It even has its own TV channel. "Aprende Ingles" -- Learn English -- is Spain's only national channel in English. He says people watch his channel and take his classes to get a better job. RICHARD VAUGHAN: "People don't learn English here for cultural reasons. Some do. But the motive is always, ninety-nine percent of the time, professional." Modern changes in the world economy -- globalization -- may offer chances for a better job in another country. But economic problems at home can also make people feel they have few other choices. NICK BYRNE: "People realize, you know, they are not only going to have to be mobile out of a choice, but they are going to have to be mobile because of necessity." Nick Byrne is director of the language center at the London School of Economics. NICK BYRNE: "We found that, in our university language centers across the UK and indeed across Europe, that language learning is up. We're not talking about people doing a whole degree in languages, but people going on evening courses -- English courses particularly." In Spain, some of those studying English hope for jobs in Britain or the United States. But others want to work for international companies with offices in Spain. Many companies now require workers to be bilingual. Dominic Campbell is an American who lives in Madrid and teaches English part time. DOMINIC CAMPBELL: "It's a lot of jobs now are actually mandatory that you know at least two languages and a lot of them actually want at least Spanish and English. And, a lot of them are asking for Spanish, English and French -- especially airlines." Mr. Campbell says many of his students thought speaking Spanish was enough. DOMINIC CAMPBELL: "They just think, you know, 'My English is poor, I don't want to speak it, I don't want to learn how to speak it. I've got Spanish, that's all I need.'"




But people also need jobs. More than forty percent of Spaniards in their twenties are out of work. Inigo Gomez has a degree in education. INIGO GOMEZ: "I'm a teacher, and I couldn't find a job here. So I think it's a good idea to go to the United Kingdom and try to find a job as a Spanish teacher." And while he does that, many Spaniards for the first time will be spreading their new education in English at home. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Bob Doughty. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/education/Economic-Forces-Push-Spanish-to-Learn-English--125924438.html


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15. Three Books That Explore the Human Brain.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I’m Shirley Griffith. STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we discuss three books that tell about ways the human brain works. One book considers the power of the brain in controlling why some people care about how someone else feels and why others do not. Another book describes how the limitations of the brain can affect our lives. The third book is about how the brain develops in a baby. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Psychology professor and researcher Simon Baron-Cohen wrote a book called “The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty.” His book asks why it is that human beings are capable of evil behavior towards each other. He says the word “evil” is less helpful in offering a scientific explanation. Instead, he chooses to use the word empathy. We spoke with Professor Baron-Cohen about his book using Skype.




SIMON BARON-COHEN: “If we are trying to do science, we should move away from the concept of evil as an explanation of cruelty and instead use the framework of empathy. Because empathy is something you can measure scientifically. And you can measure it at the psychological level using questionnaires or psychological tests. You can also measure it using the new brain scanning technology, MRI. In that respect, you can also move forward and move deeper.” SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Simon Baron-Cohen defines empathy as the ability of a person to identify what someone else is thinking or feeling and to react with an appropriate emotion. He says people who do evil acts are showing a lack of empathy. This can be temporary, or part of a more permanent condition. STEVE EMBER: Professor Baron-Cohen and his research team developed a way to measure individual differences in empathy. They found that most people have average levels of empathy, but some people have extremely low or high levels. SIMON BARON-COHEN: “In my book I call this the empathy bell curve. And part of what I’m exploring in the book is what determines where an individual scores on this empathy bell curve. Why do some people score much lower or much higher than other people.” STEVE EMBER: Empathy is linked to physical areas of the brain. Medical imaging technology has identified at least ten parts of the brain that are active when people empathize. And, these areas are less active in people with little or no empathy. Why would someone lack empathy? Professor Baron-Cohen offers evidence suggesting that zero empathy can be the result of environmental, social and genetic conditions. The question of empathy is a meaningful one in the field of psychology. Lack of empathy has an influence on borderline personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy and the developmental disorder autism. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Professor Baron-Cohen says borderline personality disorder, narcissism and psychopathy are described as personality disorders. But he says psychiatric experts could instead define them as empathy disorders. This could open up new ways of studying and treating these disorders. Recognizing the importance of empathy could also change the way legal and psychiatric experts consider and treat people who commit acts of cruelty. But this recognition goes far beyond psychiatry. The writer says empathy is one of the most valuable resources in our world.




SIMON BARON COHEN: “One thing that I think may have been neglected in the past is just recognizing that empathy also has the power to resolve conflicts between people. So if we think about conflicts, it could be a conflict between two people, like two neighbors. It could be a conflict between two nations. For example, nations that go to war.” SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: That was Professor Baron-Cohen speaking to us with Skype. He says it is important to recognize the value of empathy in areas like politics, education and law, as well as psychiatry. STEVE EMBER: Dean Buonomano is a brain specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He works in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology and the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. His book “Brain Bugs” explores how the human brain is one of the best pieces of technology ever created. But at the same time, he shows how a normal, healthy brain is also built with weaknesses and limitations. Professor Buonomano borrows the word “bug” from computer programming to describe the errors which the brain can make. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One reason for these ‘bugs’ is evolution. Human brains developed over hundreds of thousands of years to be skilled at finding food, shelter and protection from threats. Yet evolution did not fully prepare the brain for the many demands of the modern world. So, our brains are very good at doing some things. But our brains sometimes fail us when we attempt to remember long lists of information, or compute large numbers in our head. Our brains are also not always very good at making long-term decisions. STEVE EMBER: Professor Buonomano discusses how and why the brain can play tricks on us in decisions involving memory, time and judging threats. Sometimes these mistakes can have serious effects, like a victim who wrongly identifies her attacker to police. At other times, the mistakes are harmless. For example, one study found that most people choose to receive one hundred dollars immediately over receiving one hundred twenty dollars in a month. While waiting could lead to more money, most people would want the payment now. Dean Buonomano says that, for human ancestors, the immediate need for food was more important than the future need. So, our brains often want an immediate action instead of having to wait for a reward. Professor Buonomano explains the causes of many kinds of brain bugs and gives examples of their everyday results. And, he offers ideas for how understanding our brain bugs can become a tool for improving our mental powers.




SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist in Seattle, Washington. His book is called “Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five.” The book gives scientific information about how a brain develops from its creation to the age of five years. Professor Medina says parenting is all about brain development. He says what science tells us about the brain gives parents good information for raising smart, happy children. STEVE EMBER: Many parents ask the professor what they can do to improve brain function before birth. A mother’s actions have a big effect on how her baby develops. He says one of the most important things is for the mother to avoid severe levels of stress. JOHN MEDINA: “The maternal stress that is felt, that stress hormone -- one of them is called cortisol -- can actually leach into the womb. And, at certain stages of development can actually go into the brain of the baby and rewire the brain of that baby in such fashion that it now becomes stressed.” STEVE EMBER: John Medina says it is important for a pregnant woman to gain the right amount of weight and eat healthful foods so that her baby will develop normally. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: His book also discusses the science behind a child’s intelligence after birth. He says one of the best things parents can do for their baby has to do with their own relationship. Studies show marriage conflict increases greatly after a baby is born. This can result from new pressures on the parents and lack of sleep. Professor Medina says what conflict the baby witnesses can be important. JOHN MEDINA: “If you make up in public, by that I mean in front of your child, with the same frequency that you fight in front of your child, the child’s nervous system develops beautifully. It doesn’t matter how much fighting you guys do. In fact, I would argue that if kids could actually see real live conflict going on that is both frank but also resolvable, it teaches the child to begin to have better conflict resolution.” SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Parents can do other things to help support the mental development of their baby. These include breast feeding and talking and playing with the child. [John Medina says it is wise to avoid television at an early age and not to pressure children to learn.] STEVE EMBER: As for happiness, Professor Medina says it is important for parents to help children develop language skills to express their emotions.




JOHN MEDINA: “What a parent does when their child’s emotions run hot profoundly influences how that child’s emotional regulation occurs decades later, no kidding.” STEVE EMBER: He also says parents can help create a healthy emotional life for small children by being watchful and responsive to their needs. He adds that parents need to recognize and not judge the child’s emotions. Finally, John Medina tells about research that shows the single best predictor of happiness is having friends. He says parents should help children learn to control and understand their emotions because this leads to deeper friendships. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/science-technology/Three-Books-That-Explore-the-Human-Brain-127340488.html


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16. John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006: He Influenced Economic Thought for Many Years.

John Kenneth Galbraith. STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember. BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Economics is a field based on mathematics. Yet it cannot provide answers to every problem. Some people question whether economics is a science at all. For many years, possibly the loudest critic was himself an economist, John Kenneth Galbraith.




STEVE EMBER: John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist, liberal thinker, author, professor, presidential advisor and ambassador. He stood over two meters tall. He was excellent at arguing positions and making complex ideas understandable. These two qualities made Mister Galbraith a powerful personality able to influence people at the highest levels of government. He was also a productive writer and an effective critic of many popular ideas of his time. For some, he was an easy person to dislike. He was very sure of himself and his arguments. Yet, he clearly influenced the economic ideas of many people, including politicians and presidents. BARBARA KLEIN: John Kenneth Galbraith was born on a farm near Iona Station, Canada in nineteen-oh-eight. It was a long way from the East Coast of the United States and the political power centers he would come to influence. He learned about politics from his father, William Archibald Galbraith, who was a farmer. He also served in many local government positions and was a community leader. John once said that his mother, Sarah Catherine Kendall Galbraith, wanted him to be a farmer also. But she died when he was fourteen. STEVE EMBER: Young John first studied agriculture at Ontario Agricultural College. But he soon found economics more interesting. His studies led him to the University of California at Berkeley. He got a doctorate degree in agricultural economics in nineteen thirty-four. In his early years, Mister Galbraith was greatly influenced by the economist Thorstein Veblen and his book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class." Mister Veblen argued that people gathered wealth for the purpose of "conspicuous consumption." He meant that people earned money to spend on valuable things to gain respect in society. Mister Galbraith said he was also deeply affected by the economic disaster that was expanding around him and across the country: The Great Depression. The Great Depression severely affected the American economy and society. At the height of the Depression, at least one in five Americans did not have a job. BARBARA KLEIN: Mister Galbraith became an instructor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In nineteen thirty-seven, he became an American citizen. He married Catherine Atwater, the daughter of a New York lawyer. They later had four sons. That year, Mister Galbraith also went to England to study under the most influential economist of the twentieth century. John Maynard Keynes was teaching at Cambridge University at the time.




He had published the "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" the year before. Mister Keynes argued that deep economic crises required strong measures by the government. He said large public works projects and government price controls were needed to increase employment during economic downturns. STEVE EMBER: In nineteen thirty-nine, John Kenneth Galbraith began working for the government. He joined the National Defense Advisory Committee in Washington. He later was in charge of controlling prices for the Office of Price Administration. Mister Galbraith held the powerful position of top price controller in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In nineteen forty-three, however, he was forced to resign from the job. Later, he would say that he had been ousted by the politics of price control. The same year, Mister Galbraith started writing for Fortune magazine, which was owned by noted conservative Henry Luce. Mister Galbraith developed into a highly skilled writer. Even his strongest critic praised his writing ability, even if they did not agree with what he wrote. BARBARA KLEIN: Near the end of World War Two, Mister Galbraith took part in the Strategic Bombing survey. The study was meant to measure the effectiveness of the American bombing campaign against Germany. He angered many people by saying that the bombing had done little to halt the German war effort. He found the Germans had simply moved industrial operations to new places after the bombing. STEVE EMBER: In nineteen fifty-eight, Mister Galbraith published his most famous book,"The Affluent Society." He argued that while private individuals in America were becoming wealthier, public institutions were growing poor. He criticized the American culture that he said was rich in goods but poor in social services. Mister Galbraith also used the term "conventional wisdom" in the book. This term describes an idea that everyone accepts as true, but is not closely considered or examined. "The Affluent Society" created a lot of discussion at the time. Critics said the book forced the nation to reexamine its values. It is still considered an excellent example of reasoning and writing. BARBARA KLEIN: Mister Galbraith was also involved in politics, which was unusual for an economist. He wrote speeches for Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson during two campaigns in the nineteen fifties. Mister Galbraith later became a trusted adviser to President John F. Kennedy.




President Kennedy appointed him ambassador to India in nineteen sixty-one. Thirty years later, Mister Galbraith received India's second-highest civilian honor for his work to strengthen ties between India and the United States. STEVE EMBER: The years working for the Kennedy Administration were happy times. But on November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon Johnson took office after the tragedy. Mister Galbraith had good relations with the new president and became an adviser. But that lasted only until the war in Vietnam became the biggest issue in the United States. Mister Galbraith opposed the involvement of the United States in the war. He spoke about that time. JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH: "I liked Lyndon Johnson very much. And I respected him as a man who combined intelligence with a will to action--a wonderful combination. And so breaking with him in the mid to late sixties on the issue of Vietnam was something I regretted very much." Public opposition to the war in Vietnam caused President Johnson not to seek another term in office. The issue of the war caused Mister Galbraith to become active in politics again. He supported the anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. He even nominated Mister McCarthy at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen sixty-eight. Mister Galbraith would later say: "I was more strongly moved by the need for opposition to Vietnam than any other major issue of my lifetime." BARBARA KLEIN: In the years after the Vietnam War, Ken Galbraith put his energy into writing. He debated conservative thinkers such as his friend William F. Buckley, Junior. And he continued to advise Democratic Presidents. In nineteen ninety-six, his book "The Good Society" was published. It was an update of his book "The Affluent Society." He wrote that his earlier concerns had worsened. The United States had become even more a place for the wealthy, or a "democracy of the fortunate." In all, he wrote more than thirty books during his career. In two thousand, President Bill Clinton recognized Mister Galbraith's service by awarding him the Medal of Freedom.




STEVE EMBER: John Kenneth Galbraith died in two thousand six at the age of ninety-seven. William F. Buckley said his friend was more interested in the social and ethical questions related to economics. Mister Galbraith's books lack the mathematical and statistical research found in most works on economics. Yet they remain excellent examples of thinking about social responsibility and ethics. One of his most famous criticisms of his profession was this: "Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. You can download this program and others from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/John-Kenneth-Galbraith-1908-2006-He-Influenced-American-Economic-Thought-for-Many-Years-121027649.html


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17. Does Physical Activity Lead to Higher Grades?.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Recently we told you about a finding that more years of school could help students get higher scores on intelligence tests. That was the finding of a study of teenage males in Norway. Now, other research shows that physical activity may help students do better in their classes. The research comes as educators in some countries are reducing time for activities like physical education. They are using the time instead for academic subjects like math and reading. Researchers at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam reviewed the results of fourteen studies. Twelve were from the United States, one from Canada and one from South Africa. The studies appeared between nineteen ninety-seven and two thousand nine. They included more than fifty-five thousand children, ages six to eighteen.




Researcher Amika Singh says the studies showed a link between physical activity and scores on subjects such as math, English and reading. AMIKA SINGH: "Based on the results of our study we can conclude that being physically active is beneficial for academic performance." Ms. Singh offers some possible explanations. AMIKA SINGH: "There are, first, physiological explanations, like more blood flow, and so more oxygen to the brain. Being physically active means there are more hormones produced like endorphins. And endorphins make your stress level lower and your mood improved, which means you also perform better." Also, students involved in organized sports learn rules and how to follow them. This could improve their classroom behavior and help them keep their mind on their work. The study leaves some questions unanswered, however. Ms. Singh says it is not possible to say whether the amount or kind of activity affected the level of academic improvement. This is because of differences among the studies. Also, they were mostly observational studies. An observational study is where researchers do not do controlled comparisons. They only describe what they observe. So they might observe a link that students who are more active often have better grades. But that does not necessarily mean being active was the cause of those higher grades. The researchers said they found only two high-quality studies. They called for more high-quality studies to confirm their findings. They also pointed out that "outcomes for other parts of the world may be quite different." Still, the general finding was that physically active kids are more likely to do better in school. Ms. Singh says schools should consider that finding before they cut physical education programs. Her Amike Singh's paper on "Physical Activity and Performance at School" is published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Alex Villarreal. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Does-Physical-Activity-Lead-to-Higher-Grades-138128523.html


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18. Medical Spies Keep Watch on Leaders.

This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Not all spies target military, political or economic intelligence. Some gather medical intelligence. Presidents, prime ministers and other leaders do not always like to talk about their health. Some disappear from public life for a while and then reappear, with or without an explanation. Spy agencies search for information about physical and mental health. The idea that a leader might even lose his mind and launch a war or a nuclear attack is not an imaginary threat.




The Central Intelligence Agency has a Medical and Psychological Assessment Cell. It employs or consults with doctors, sociologists, political scientists and cultural anthropologists to examine the conditions of top officials. Jonathan Clemente is a doctor doing research for a book on medical intelligence. He says the CIA team tries to predict how a leader will act. JONATHAN CLEMENTE: “What they try and do on the psychological side of things is describe a constellation of psychiatric signs and symptoms, and then to describe for the policy makers how someone with that particular set of findings may react to certain situations.” Such efforts go back to the Office of Strategic Services, which came before the CIA. The OSS did a psychological profile of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Germany. The CIA was established in nineteen forty-seven. Dr. Clemente says the agency formed a small office called "Leadership at a Distance." JONATHAN CLEMENTE: "In the late fifties and early nineteen sixties, the CIA decided that they had expertise to look more carefully and in a more rigorous, analytical way at the health of foreign leaders in order to help give policy makers some forewarning of a transition in a government, stability of foreign governments, and also looking for potential points of diplomatic leverage.” Experts say dying leaders can feel they have to act quickly to make sure their decisions live longer than they do. Physical and mental health are closely linked, experts say. But identifying a mental condition without direct examination of a person can be much more difficult than a physical disorder. Rose McDermott is a political psychologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She points out that an illness like bipolar disorder can be well-controlled on medication. But a leader’s behavior can also be affected by medication taken for a physical condition. Rose McDermott: "The concern is not just the illness, it's also the medication that people take while they are ill and how that can compromise their decision-making ability, cognitively and intellectually. So they don’t make the same kind of decisions, their decisions may not be as predictable. They certainly may not be as, quote unquote, rational. Professor McDermott has written extensively on medical intelligence.




ROSE McDERMOTT: “It can be decisively important because it can really change the stability of governments, particularly in authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, where there’s really a limited number of people who have powerful decision-making authority." And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I’m Jim Tedder. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Medical-Spies-Keep-Watch-on-Leaders-130699748.html


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19. Louis Kahn, 1901-1974: He Helped Define Modern Architecture.

Louis Kahn. STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember. BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Louis Kahn. He is considered one of the most important American building designers of the twentieth century. (MUSIC)




STEVE EMBER: Louis Kahn helped define modern architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and building structures such as houses, museums, and office buildings. Kahn’s architecture has several defining qualities. For example, Kahn was very interested in the look and feel of the materials he used. He used brick and concrete in new and special ways. Kahn also paid careful attention to the use of sunlight. He liked natural light to enter his buildings through interesting kinds of windows and openings. Kahn’s work can also be identified by his creative use of geometric shapes. Many of his buildings use squares, circles and three sided shapes called triangles. BARBARA KLEIN: Louis Kahn was born in Estonia in nineteen-oh-one. When he was five years old his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even as a child, Louis Kahn showed excellence as an artist. When he was in school his pictures won several competitions organized by the city. In high school, Kahn studied architecture briefly. He later went to the University of Pennsylvania and studied architecture full time. He graduated in nineteen twenty-four. Louis Kahn’s buildings have many influences. Some experts say his trip to Rome, Italy in nineteen fifty-one influenced him the most. Kahn spent a few months as an architect with the American Academy in Rome. He also traveled through other parts of Italy, Greece and Egypt. There, he saw the ancient Greek and Roman ruins that also would influence his works. He was very affected by the size and design of these ruins. They helped influence him to develop an architecture that combines both modern and ancient designs. Other experts believe Kahn was also influenced by the part of Philadelphia where he grew up. There were many factory buildings with large windows. These brick structures were very solid. This industrial design is apparent in several of Kahn’s early works. STEVE EMBER: Kahn’s first projects involved building housing in Philadelphia. He later received government jobs to design housing during World War Two. In nineteen forty-two, he became a head architect of the Public Building Administration. Kahn’s first important project was the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut in the early nineteen fifties. The outside of the building is very simple. The surface is made of brick and limestone. The inside of the gallery shows Kahn’s great artistic sense. For example, he created a triangle-shaped walkway of steps that sits inside a rounded concrete shell. This building was very popular. Its completion represented an important step in Kahn’s professional life. He was now a famous architect. (MUSIC)




BARBARA KLEIN: One of Kahn’s other important buildings is the Salk Institute, a research center in La Jolla, California. It was built in the nineteen sixties. This structure further shows how Kahn was able to unite form and function. This means his buildings were beautiful and also useful. The Salk Institute has two structures that surround a marble garden area or courtyard. This outdoor marble area is almost completely bare. The only detail is a small stream of water running through the middle of the square towards the Pacific Ocean. This simple design is very striking. Inside the building are many rooms for laboratories. Kahn was very careful to make sure they all received natural light and a view of the ocean. He linked the indoor and outdoor spaces in a very beautiful way. STEVE EMBER: The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas is another famous building by Louis Kahn. Some say it is his best. Kahn built this museum in the early nineteen seventies. This large museum has long rooms with curved or vaulted ceilings. Inside, all of the walls can be moved to best fit the art collection. Kahn was able to make the concrete material of the building look both solid and airy. He used sunlight and bodies of water to create a truly special building. Kahn once said this about the Kimbell Art Museum: “The building feels…that I had nothing to do with it…that some other hand did it.” The architect seems to say that he was helped by some higher influence. Many people feel that his architecture has a very spiritual and timeless quality. Kahn mostly created public buildings such as museums and libraries. However, he also designed a few houses. His most famous home is the Fisher house near Philadelphia. It is made of several box-shaped buildings. The house is made out of glass, wood and stone. Many windows provide a view of the nearby trees. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: Louis Kahn also designed buildings in other countries, including India and Bangladesh. His largest project was a series of buildings that would become the government center of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This structure includes the parliament, meeting rooms, offices, eating places and even a religious center. This series of buildings looks like an ancient home for kings. Huge rounded and box-like buildings have windows in the shape of circles and triangles. The structure is surrounded by water. From a distance, it appears to float on a lake. Kahn spent the last twelve years of his life on the project. It was completed in nineteen eighty-three, nine years after his death. Because of Kahn, experts say, one of the poorest countries in the world has one of the most beautiful public buildings on Earth.




All of Kahn’s buildings share a common solidity and heaviness. Experts say they are very different from the works of other famous architects of the period. These architects preferred light and airy buildings. Their weightless-looking structures were mostly made of glass and metal. Kahn used stone and concrete to make monumental buildings. Many of his structures look more ancient than modern. (MUSIC) STEVE EMBER: Louis Kahn was an artist who created beautiful works. But he was not a very good businessman. He would change his designs many times. This would make each project take a great deal of time and cost more money. The majority of the projects he designed were never built. Also, he did not like to compromise his design ideas to satisfy a buyer’s wishes. For this reason and others, Kahn did not make many buildings. His design company did not always have many jobs or much money. In fact, when Kahn died, he was in great debt. This is especially unusual since he was considered one of the most important architects in the world. BARBARA KLEIN: In two thousand four, Mister Kahn’s son, Nathaniel Kahn, made a film about his father’s life. The film is called “My Architect.” It is interesting for many reasons. “My Architect” gives a history of Kahn’s life. The film presents the architect and his buildings. You can see Kahn working at his desk and talking with his builders. You can also see him teaching university students. You can tell that he had great energy. The film also shows a great deal about Kahn’s private life. Kahn had a wife and daughter. But he also had two other families. Kahn had a child with each of two other women that he was not married to. In the film, Nathaniel Kahn describes visits from his father. He says that as a child he did not understand why his father did not live with him and his mother all of the time. NATHANIEL KAHN IN “MY ARCHITECT”: “I didn’t know my father very well. He never married my mother and he never lived with us. I needed to know him. I needed to find out who he really was. So I set out on a journey to see his buildings and to find whatever was left of him out there.” STEVE EMBER: Many questions are left unanswered about Kahn. Yet, the film helps tell a very interesting story about a very important man. Louis Kahn died in nineteen seventy-four. Yet his influence lives on. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, he trained many future builders. Some students have become important architects. And Kahn’s architecture has remained fresh and timeless. (MUSIC)




BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written by Dana Demange. It was produced by Dana Demange and Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Louis-Kahn-1901-1974-He-Helped-Define-Modern-Architecture-126066138.html


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Louis-Kahn-1901-1974-He-Helped-Define-Modern-Architecture-126066138.html

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20. Cleopatra Was a Powerful and Wise Ruler.

Cleopatra played by Elizabeth Taylor. CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: I’m Christopher Cruise. FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life of one of the most famous and powerful women in history. She was a goddess, a queen, and a skilled diplomat and negotiator. She was a great politician who knew how to show off her and her country’s power and influence. At the height of her rule more than two thousand years ago, she controlled Egypt and other lands including most of the eastern Mediterranean coast.




She was also one of the richest people in the world. She was known for her striking personality, her sharp intelligence and her alliances with the two most powerful men of her time. Her name was Cleopatra. (MUSIC) CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Many people remember Cleopatra as the beautiful and fiery woman played by Elizabeth Taylor in the nineteen sixty-three movie “Cleopatra.” ELIZABETH TAYLOR (AS CLEOPATRA): “Do as you say, literally? As if I was something you had conquered?” REX HARRISION (AS CAESAR): “If I choose to regard you as such.” ELIZABETH TAYLOR: “Am I to understand then that you feel free to do with me whatever you want, whenever you want?” REX HARRISON: “Yes, I want that understood.” CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: She is also the subject of one of William Shakespeare’s great tragic plays, “Antony and Cleopatra.” Shakespeare describes Cleopatra with these lines: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety; other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she makes hungry where most she satisfies.” FAITH LAPIDUS: The story of Cleopatra has influenced countless historians, painters, writers and filmmakers. But much of the story of her life is based on descriptions that are not true. She is often described as an evil and sexy beauty who liked to take control of men. To learn the truth about this famous ruler requires separating fact from centuries of storytelling. Most historical documents describing her life were written long after she had died. They were written by historians who never knew her and who were loyal to her enemies. Remembering this famous woman as an evil beauty discredits her role as a wise and intelligent ruler who lived during an important period in history. (MUSIC)




CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Cleopatra the Seventh was born over two thousand years ago in sixty-nine B.C., or sixty-nine years before the birth of Christ. Her ancestors came from a long line of rulers that began with Ptolemy the First and ended with Cleopatra. This family is known as the Ptolemies. Although Cleopatra ruled Egypt, she was not Egyptian. She was Macedonian Greek. Her first language was Greek, but historians say she spoke eight others including Hebrew, Latin, Parthian and Egyptian. Cleopatra became queen of Egypt at the age of eighteen. Egyptian tradition required that a female rule alongside a male family member. She ruled jointly, first with her younger brother, Ptolemy the Thirteenth. She was also married to him. After his death, Cleopatra ruled with her other brother Ptolemy the Fourteenth. Later she ordered that he be killed. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Ptolemies were famous for marrying within their family. They were also well known for their murderous aims and often plotted to kill one another to gain power. Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe attempted to have herself declared queen of Egypt. So Cleopatra ordered that her sister be killed. Cleopatra was not interested in sharing power and was not going to risk any threats from her family members. CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: One of Cleopatra’s main concerns throughout her reign was Egypt’s relationship with the powerful Roman Republic. The Romans had taken control of most of Europe and parts of North Africa. Cleopatra had good reason to be concerned that Rome would try to take over Egypt. She worked hard to create strong alliances with Rome’s leaders. She offered them her financial support and resources such as grain, warships and soldiers. Egypt was an extremely rich country, and Rome began to depend on its wealth. Throughout her more than twenty years as ruler, she kept Egypt allied with, but independent from, Rome. FAITH LAPIDUS: Starting in the year forty-eight B.C., Cleopatra allied herself with the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar. She had been exiled by her brother Ptolemy the Thirteenth and was fighting to take back power. Rome was going through a period of civil war. Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar were fighting each other for control of Rome. After Pompey was murdered, Cleopatra decided it was important to make friends with Caesar for her safety and that of her country. Tensions were high in Egypt’s main city, Alexandria. She had a servant secretly bring her into Caesar’s home while hidden in a cloth bag.




CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Cleopatra supported Caesar during fighting between the Egyptian supporters of Ptolemy the Thirteenth and the Roman military. And upon his victory, Caesar gave control of Egypt back to Cleopatra. The queen would soon give birth to Caesar’s child, a boy named Caesarion. Cleopatra knew this child would deepen ties between Rome and Egypt. Caesar and Cleopatra continued their relationship although he was often travelling on military campaigns. She visited him twice in Rome. But many Romans did not like that a queen from the East was interfering in Roman affairs. And, some Romans felt Caesar was becoming too powerful. In forty-four B.C., Caesar was murdered by a group of Roman senators. FAITH LAPIDUS: Rome was later controlled by three rulers -- a triumvirate. The rulers were Octavian, Marcus Lepidus, and Mark Antony. Cleopatra would ally herself with Mark Antony. They would also become lovers. She had three children with him. But their alliance would come at a huge cost. (MUSIC) CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Stacy Schiff is an award-winning writer who published a book on Cleopatra in two thousand ten. It is called “Cleopatra: A Life.” Ms. Schiff’s aim is to separate fact from fiction in telling Cleopatra’s story. She says Cleopatra was smart and powerful. She has been misrepresented by history as a liar and someone who used men for her own gain. Ms. Schiff’s book helps bring to life not only this famous queen, but also the richness of ancient Egyptian culture and society. Her description of Alexandria helps explain why the city was one of the most famous and beautiful in the world. Alexandria was a capitol for learning and culture. Its library was the largest and greatest in the ancient world. FAITH LAPIDUS: Cleopatra would have been a part of this learned environment. She grew up studying and memorizing literary works which taught about history, religion and philosophy. She also studied public speaking, math, music, astronomy and geometry. She used this knowledge in her many duties as queen. She organized an army, acted as a judge, controlled the value of the country’s money, secured Egypt’s economy and was a huge supporter of the arts. CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Stacy Schiff also describes how Cleopatra successfully used her image as a powerful queen and goddess to influence others. Ms. Schiff explains that the power of imagery was huge in a world where only some people knew how to read. For example, Cleopatra made herself into a representation of the goddess Isis. Isis was a goddess of motherhood, righteousness and justice.




Ms. Schiff describes how Cleopatra used the power of imagery for her first official meeting with Mark Antony at his base in the town of Tarsus. She arrived in a golden boat with a team of musicians and servants. This had an unforgettable effect on Mark Antony. The two would remain a couple for the rest of their lives. Mark Antony controlled the eastern part of the Roman Republic. He gave many rich lands to Cleopatra to rule. In return, she helped him pay for his military campaigns. FAITH LAPIDUS: However, Mark Antony began to spend more and more time in Alexandria with Cleopatra and less time planning his military invasions. People in Rome feared Mark Antony’s growing loyalty to Egypt. He received increasing criticism from the powerful Roman ruler Octavian. A huge battle between Octavian’s troops and those of Mark Antony and Cleopatra took place at Actium in modern day Greece. Octavian’s forces quickly defeated his enemies. CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Mark Antony’s soldiers deserted him as Octavian’s troops entered Alexandria. Mark Antony soon killed himself, dying in Cleopatra’s arms. Cleopatra killed herself by poison several days later to escape watching her kingdom become a province of Rome. The golden age of ancient Egypt and its rulers ended with her death. But Cleopatra’s timeless story would live on. FAITH LAPIDUS: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/arts-entertainment/Cleopatra-Was-a-Powerful-and-Wise-Ruler-116280284.html


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«The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every

time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it

another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us

irrevocably in thought and act».

— Orison Swett Marden.




21. Program Helps Students Express Themselves With Creative Writing.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. 826 is the name of a nonprofit organization that works to help students become better writers by thinking creatively. 826 is also the address of the first center where this literary arts program began in two thousand two. Author Dave Eggars and educator Ninive Calegari started the program in California at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco. It now serves thirty thousand students through writing and tutoring centers in eight American cities. Eight twenty-six Valencia Street is a fun place for students and visitors. At the front is a pirate supply store. Think of the kind of place where Captain Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" might shop.




Leigh Lehman is the executive director. She says the idea of entering through a pirate store is meant to get students not to think of the place as an education center. LEIGH LEHMAN: "'This is not school; this is not a tutoring center. This is a place for me to be myself and to find my voice and find my creativity and excel.'" The goal is to help public school students between six and eighteen years old write creatively. During the day, teachers bring classes on field trips and volunteers help with writing projects. After school, students come for help with creative writing and their schoolwork -- yes, it is a tutoring center. Eight twenty-six Valencia is located in a mostly Latino neighborhood. Ms. Lehman says many of the children are from immigrant families. LEIGH LEHMAN: "A lot of the parents don't speak English as a first language so it's harder for them to help their children with school work. So we're trying to provide the services that parents wouldn't otherwise be able to offer their kids for free." Each 826 center around the country has a different theme -- from a pirate store in San Francisco to a store for "spies" in Chicago. The national chief executive, Gerald Richards, says budget cuts in public schools mean less money for arts education. And as that goes away, he says, so does the ability for students to use their imagination. GERALD RICHARDS: "I think there is much more of a focus on science, technology, engineering and math. There's a lot of a focus on testing and a lot of the teaching that's going on in schools is focusing on the test and passing the test rather than thinking about how do we get kids to think." Mr. Richards points out that thinking creatively is also important in the sciences. And knowing how to write well will help students get to college and beyond. GERALD RICHARDS: "For jobs and employers and just any, really every subject, the ability to communicate well really does open a lot of doors." Leigh Lehman says 826 builds confidence. Students can publish and sell their work at places like the pirate supply store and on the Internet. In twenty-ten, the programs across the country published nine hundred forty-four volumes of student writing. Ms. Lehman says students are proud when their writing gets published. One of the students in San Francisco is Sofia Marquez. SOFIA MARQUEZ: "I get to use my imagination -- that's why I like writing."




And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. You can watch a video version of this story at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Christopher Cruise. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/education/Program-Helps-Students-Express-Themselves-in-Creative-Writing-135213253.html


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http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/education/Program-Helps-Students-Express-Themselves-in-Creative-Writing-135213253.html



22. Brief history of the English Language.

The English Language for the World. This is Steve Ember. And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, "Explorations". Today we present about the history of the English Language. The English language was strongly influenced by an event that took place one thousand four hundred years ago. In the year 597, the Roman Catholic Church began its attempt to make Christianity the religion of Britain. The language of the Catholic Church was Latin. Latin was not spoken as a language in any country at that time. But it was still used by some people. Latin made it possible for a church member from Rome to speak to a church member from Britain. Educated people from different countries could communicate using Latin.




Latin had a great effect on the English language. Here are a few examples. The Latin word “discus” became several words in English including “disk,” “dish,” and “desk.” The Latin word “quietus” became the English word “quiet.” Some English names of plants such as ginger and trees such as cedar come from Latin. So do some medical words such as cancer. English is a little like a living thing that continues to grow. English began to grow more quickly when William Caxton returned to Britain in the year 1476. He had been in Holland and other areas of Europe where he had learned printing. He returned to Britain with the first printing press. The printing press made it possible for almost anyone to buy a book. It helped spread education and the English language. Slowly, during the 1500s, English became the modern language we would recognize. English speakers today would be able to communicate with English speakers in the last part of the sixteenth century. It was during this time period that the greatest writer in English produced his work. His name was William Shakespeare. His plays continue to be printed, acted in theaters, and seen in motion pictures almost four hundred years after his death. The development of the English language took a giant step just nine years before the death of William Shakespeare. Three small British ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1607. They landed in an area that would later become the southern American state of Virginia. They began the first of several British colonies. The name of the first small colony was Jamestown. In time, people in these new colonies began to call areas of their new land by words borrowed from the native people they found living there. For example, many of the great rivers in the United States are taken from American Indian words. The Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Missouri are examples. Other Native American words included “moccasin”, the kind of shoe made of animal skin that Indians wore on their feet. This borrowing or adding of foreign words to English was a way of expanding the language. The names of three days of the week are good examples of this. The people from Northern Europe honored three gods with a special day each week. The gods were Odin, Thor and Freya. Odin’s-day became Wednesday in English, Thor’s-day became Thursday and Freya’s-day became Friday. Experts cannot explain many English words. For hundreds of years, a dog was called a “hound.” The word is still used but not as commonly as the word “dog.” Experts do not know where the word “dog” came from or when. English speakers just started using it. Other words whose origins are unknown include “fun,” “bad,” and “big.”




English speakers also continue to invent new words by linking old words together. A good example is the words “motor” and “hotel.” Many years ago some one linked them together into the word “motel.” A motel is a small hotel near a road where people travelling in cars can stay for the night. Other words come from the first letters of names of groups or devices. A device to find objects that cannot be seen called Radio Detecting and Ranging became “Radar.” The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is usually called NATO. Experts say that English has more words that explain the same thing that any other language. For example, the words “large,” “huge,” “vast,” “massive,” and “enormous” all mean something really “big.” People often ask how many words there are in the English language. Well, no one really knows. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about 615,000 words. Yet the many scientific words not in the dictionary could increase the number to almost one million. And experts are never really sure how to count English words. For example, the word “mouse.” A mouse is a small creature from the rodent family. But “mouse” has another very different meaning. A “mouse” is also a hand-held device used to help control a computer. If you are counting words do you count “mouse” two times? English is becoming the common language of millions of people worldwide, helping speakers of many different languages communicate. This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. And this is Shirley Griffith. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.ivoox.com/brief-history-of-the-english-language-audios-mp3_rf_1165095_1.html or, get the mp3 from: https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/


http://www.ivoox.com/brief-history-of-the-english-language-audios-mp3_rf_1165095_1.html




23. Henry Ford, 1863-1947: Life After the Model T.

PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Frank Oliver complete the story of industrialist Henry Ford. STEVE EMBER: In nineteen three, a doctor in Detroit, Michigan, bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. That sale was the beginning of Henry Ford's dream. He wanted to build good, low-priced cars for the general public. As he said many times: "I want to make a car that anybody can buy." To keep prices low, Henry Ford decided that he would build just one kind of car. He called it the Model T. FRANK OLIVER: The Model T was ready for sale in October nineteen eight.




The Model T cost eight hundred fifty dollars. It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the Model T. So did farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the Model T. They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model Ts were built in the first few years. The public wanted the car. And Henry Ford made more and more. STEVE EMBER: To Make the Model T, Ford built the largest factory of its time. Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when they needed them. Other factories moved some parts to the workers. But Ford was the first to design his factory completely around this system. Production rose sharply. As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen sixteen, the price had dropped to three hundred forty-five dollars. The last step in Ford's production success was to raise his workers' pay. His workers had always earned about two dollars for ten hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at other factories. With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changed jobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He raised wages to five dollars a day. FRANK OLIVER: That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became popular with car buyers in nineteen thirteen when he gave back fifty dollars to each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford was demonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages, they became better buyers. And if manufacturers sold more products, they could lower prices and still earn money. This system worked for Ford because people continued to demand his Model T. And they had the money to buy it. But what would happen when people no longer wanted the Model T, or did not have the money? STEVE EMBER: In nineteen nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with the other people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained complete control of the company. The investors did not do badly, however. An investment of ten thousand dollars when the company was first established produced a return of twenty-five million dollars.




A few years later, another group of investors offered Ford one thousand million dollars for the company. But he was not interested in selling. He wanted complete control of the company that had his name. In a sense, Henry Ford was the company. FRANK OLIVER: Henry's son, Edsel, was named president of the company before nineteen twenty. No one truly believed that Edsel was running the company. Whatever Edsel said, people believed he was speaking for his father. In nineteen twenty-three, fifty-seven percent of the cars produced in America were Model T Fords. About half the cars produced in the world were Fords. Taxicabs in Hong Kong. Most of the cars in South America. Never before -- or since -- has one car company so controlled world car production. STEVE EMBER: The success of the Ford Motor Company permitted Henry Ford to work on other projects. He became a newspaper publisher. He bought a railway. He built airplanes. He helped build a hospital. He even ran for the United States Senate. Some of Henry's projects were almost unbelievable. For example, he tried to end World War One by sailing to Europe with a group of peace supporters. FRANK OLIVER: While Henry Ford enjoyed his success, a dangerous situation was developing. Other companies began to sell what only Ford had been selling: good, low-priced cars. Ford's biggest competitor was the General Motors Company. General Motors produced the Chevrolet automobile. Ford's Model T was still a dependable car. But it had not changed in years. People said the Model T engine was too loud. They said it was too slow. The Chevrolet, however, had a different look every year. And you could pay for one over a long period of time. Ford demanded full payment at the time of sale. Ford's share of the car market began to fall. STEVE EMBER: Everyone at Ford agreed that the Model T must go. Henry Ford disagreed. And it was his decision that mattered. Finally, in nineteen twenty-six, even Henry admitted that the age of the Model T was over. A new Ford was needed. A year later, the Model T was gone.




Strangely enough, people mourned its end. They did not want to buy it anymore. But they recognized that the Model T was the last of the first cars in the brave new world of automobile development. The success of Ford's new cars did not last long. After nineteen thirty, Ford would always be second to General Motors. FRANK OLIVER: In nineteen twenty-nine, the United States suffered a great economic recession. Many businesses failed. Millions of people lost their jobs. In nineteen thirty-one, the Ford Motor Company sold only half as many cars as it had the year before. It lost thirty-seven million dollars. Working conditions at Ford grew worse. In nineteen thirty-two, hungry, unemployed men marched near the Ford factory. Police, firefighters and Ford security guards tried to stop them with sticks, high-pressure water and guns. Four of the marchers died, and twenty were wounded. Newspapers all over the United States condemned the police, firefighters and security guards for attacking unarmed men. And to make a bad situation worse, Ford dismissed all workers who attended funeral services for the dead. STEVE EMBER: More violence was to come. For several years, automobile workers had been attempting to form a labor union. Union leaders negotiated first with America's two other major automobile makers: the Chrysler company and General Motors. Those companies quickly agreed to permit a union in their factories. That left Ford alone to fight against the union. And fight he did. FRANK OLIVER: In nineteen thirty-seven, union organizers were passing out pamphlets to workers at the Ford factory. Company security guards struck. They were led by the chief of security, Harry Bennett. Harry Bennett knew nothing about cars. But he did know what Henry Ford wanted done. And he did it. Bennett's power came from Henry. The only person who might have had the power to stop Bennett was Henry's son, Edsel, who was president of the company. But Edsel himself was fighting Henry and his unwillingness to change. Bennett's power in the company continued to grow. His violence against the union of automobile workers also grew.




The Ford Motor Company did not agree to negotiate with the union until nineteen forty-one. Henry Ford accepted an agreement. If he had not, his company would have lost millions of dollars in government business. STEVE EMBER: In nineteen forty-three, Edsel Ford died. With Edsel gone, Henry again became president of the Ford Motor Company. It was difficult to know if Henry or Harry Bennett was running the company. America was at war. And Henry was eighty years old -- too old to deal with the problems of wartime production. And Bennett knew nothing at all about production. So Henry's grandson, also Henry Ford, was recalled from the Navy to run the company. Young Henry's first act was to dismiss Harry Bennett. FRANK OLIVER: Old Henry Ford retired from business. His thoughts were in the past. He died in his sleep in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of eighty-three. Henry Ford was not the first man whose name was given to an automobile. But his name -- more than any other -- was linked to that machine. And his dream changed the lives of millions of people. Some still wonder if Henry Ford was a simple man who seemed difficult -- or a difficult man who seemed simple. No one, however, questions the fact that he made the automobile industry one of the great industries in the world. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Henry-Ford-1863-1947-He-made-the-automobile-industry-one-of-the-great-industries-in-the-world-137393828.html


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24. Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961: He Was Able to Paint in Words What He Saw and Felt.

Ernest Hemingway. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith. FRANK OLIVER: And I'm Frank Oliver with People in America, a Special English program about people who were important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the life of writer Ernest Hemingway. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: "A writer is always alone, always an outsider," Ernest Hemingway said. Others said that of the many people he created in his books, Hemingway was his own best creation.




Ernest Hemingway was born in eighteen ninety-nine. He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, near the middle western city of Chicago. He was the second child in a family of six. His father was a doctor. His mother liked to paint and play the piano. Each summer the family traveled to their holiday home in northern Michigan. Ernest's father taught him how to catch fish, hunt, set up a camp and cook over a fire. At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper. He tried to write like a famous sports writer of that time, Ring Lardner. He developed his writing skills this way. FRANK OLIVER: In nineteen seventeen, Hemingway decided not to go to a university. The United States had just entered World War One and he wanted to join the army. But the army rejected him because his eyesight was not good enough. Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri. He reported news from the hospital, police headquarters, and the railroad station. One reporter remembered: "Hemingway liked to be where the action was." The Kansas City Star demanded that its reporters write short sentences. It wanted reporters to see the unusual details in an incident. Hemingway quickly learned to do both. He worked for the newspaper only nine months before he joined the Red Cross to help on the battlefields of Europe. His job was to drive a Red Cross truck carrying wounded away from battle. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Red Cross sent him to Italy. Soon he saw his first wounded when an arms factory in Milan exploded. Later, he was sent to the battle front. He went as close to the fighting as possible to see how he would act in the face of danger. Before long, he was seriously wounded. The war ended soon after he healed. Hemingway returned to the United States. Less than a year had passed since he went to Europe. But in that short time he had changed forever. He needed to write about what he had seen. FRANK OLIVER: Ernest Hemingway left home for Chicago to prove to himself, and to his family, that he could earn a living from his writing. But, he ran out of money and began to write for a newspaper again. The Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star, liked his reports about life in Chicago and paid him well. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In Chicago, Hemingway met the writer Sherwood Anderson. Anderson was one of the first writers in America to write about the lives of common people.




Hemingway saw that Anderson's stories showed life as it really was, the way Hemingway was trying to do. Anderson gave Hemingway advice about his writing. He told Hemingway to move to Paris, where living was less costly. He said Paris was full of young artists and writers from all over the world. In return for Anderson's kindness Hemingway wrote a book called "The Torrents of Spring." It makes fun of Anderson and the way he wrote. There was something in Hemingway that could not say "thank you" to anyone. He had to believe he did everything for himself, even when he knew others helped him. FRANK OLIVER: Hemingway decided to move to Paris. But before he did he married a woman he had recently met. Her name was Hadley Richardson. Paris was cold and gray when Hemingway and his new wife arrived in nineteen twenty-one. They lived in one of the poorer parts of the city. Their rooms were small and had no running water. But the Toronto Star employed him as its European reporter, so there was enough money for the two of them to live. And the job gave Hemingway time to write his stories. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Hemingway enjoyed exploring Paris, making new friends, learning French customs and sports. Some new friends were artists and writers who had come to Paris in the nineteen twenties. Among them were poet Ezra Pound, and writers Gertrude Stein, John dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. They quickly saw that Hemingway was a good writer. They helped him publish his stories in the United States. He was thankful for their support at the time, but later denied that he had received help. As a reporter, Hemingway traveled all over Europe. He wrote about politics. He wrote about peace conferences and border disputes. And he wrote about sports, skiing and fishing. Later he would write about bull fighting in Spain. The Toronto Star was pleased with his work, and wanted more of his reports. But Hemingway was busy with his own writing. He said: "Sometimes, I would start a new story and could not get it going. Then I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think. I would say to myself: 'All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.' So finally, I would write a true sentence and go on from there. It was a wonderful feeling when I had worked well. " FRANK OLIVER: Hemingway's first book of stories was called "In Our Time." It included a story called "Big Two-Hearted River," about the effect of war on a young man.




It tells about the young man taking a long fishing trip in Michigan. Hemingway had learned from his father when he was a boy about living in the wild. The story is about two kinds of rivers. One is calm and clear. It is where the young man fishes. The other is dark. It is a swamp, a threatening place. The story shows the young man trying to forget his past. He is also trying to forget the war. Yet he never really speaks about it. The reader learns about the young man, not because Hemingway tells us what the young man thinks, but because he shows the young man learning about himself. "Big Two-Hearted River" is considered one of the best modern American stories. It is often published in collections of best writing. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: After the book was published in nineteen twenty-five, Hadley and Hemingway returned to the United States for the birth of their son. They quickly returned to Paris. Hemingway was working on a long story. He wanted to publish a novel so he would be recognized as a serious writer. And he wanted the money a novel would earn. The novel was called "The Sun Also Rises." It is about young Americans in Europe after World War One. The war had destroyed their dreams. And it had given them nothing to replace those dreams. The writer Gertrude Stein later called these people members of "The Lost Generation." FRANK OLIVER: The book was an immediate success. At the age of twenty-five Ernest Hemingway was famous. Many people, however, could not recognize Hemingway's art because they did not like what he wrote about. Hemingway's sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas City Star newspaper. He wrote about what he knew and felt. He used few descriptive words. His statements were clear and easily understood. He had learned from earlier writers, like Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson. But Hemingway brought something new to his writing. He was able to paint in words what he saw and felt. In later books, sometimes he missed. Sometimes he even looked foolish. But when he was right he was almost perfect. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: With the success of his novel, Hemingway became even more popular in Paris. Many people came to see him. One was an American woman, Pauline Pfeiffer. She became Hadley's friend. Then Pauline fell in love with Hemingway.




Hemingway and Pauline saw each other secretly. One time, they went away together on a short trip. Years later, Hemingway wrote about returning home after that trip: "When I saw Hadley again, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling and the sun was on her lovely face. " But the marriage was over. Ernest Hemingway and Hadley separated. She kept their son. He agreed to give her money he earned from his books. In later years, he looked back at his marriage to Hadley as the happiest time of his life. FRANK OLIVER: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman and Bill Rogers. I'm Frank Oliver. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Ernest-Hemingway-1899-1961-He-Was-Able-to-Paint-in-Words-What-He-Saw-and-Felt---123690524.html


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25. George Washington - How the USA First President Led the Nation.

From VOA Learning English, welcome to The Making of a Nation. American history in Special English. I’m Steve Ember. This week in our series, we tell the story of America’s first president, George Washington. The United States declared its independence from Britain on July 4, 1776. At first the new nation was a loosely formed alliance governed under the Articles of Confederation. As we described in previous programs, all this changed when a new plan of government, the Constitution, went into effect on March 4, 1789. There was much to be done to make it work. The machinery of government was untested. Strong leadership was needed, and Washington was the man chosen to provide it.




Many historians believe there would never have been a United States without George Washington. He led the American people to victory in the war for independence from Britain. He kept the new nation united in the dangerous first years. Dorothy Moss is the assistant curator of painting and sculpture at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington. She says the painting known as the “Lansdowne Portrait” shows the way many people thought of Washington. It was painted in 1796, as Washington was finishing his presidency. In it, he is standing with one arm extended, as if he is speaking to a large group of people. His hair is gray, and he is beginning to go bald. The former general wears formal clothes, but not the uniform of a soldier. Washington was tall but thin. In the portrait, he looks bigger than he was in real life. Curator Dorothy Moss says in some ways the portrait shows Washington like a king. But in other ways, she says, he appears like a neighbor, or someone you could talk to. "He's shown with a serious expression, a determined look. People at the time commented on his broad jaw, which actually looks that way because he was wearing false teeth. His mouth is clenched, yet he projects a gentle spirit." During his lifetime, Washington was honored for his courage and wisdom. After his death in 1799, he became almost god-like in the way people respected him. Dorothy Moss says even people in England thought there was something unusually special about George Washington. The British owner of the "Lansdowne Portrait" kept the painting of the American president in his house. "The Marquis of Lansdowne commented that visitors to his house would stop in reverence to it when they would pass by -- that people were stopped in their tracks by it." "And in the United States?" "The same reaction." George Washington represented the spirit of America -- what was best about the country. For well over one hundred years, Americans found it difficult to criticize him. Modern historians, however, have painted a more realistic picture of Washington. They write about his weaknesses, as well as his strengths. Yet this has not reduced his greatness and importance in the making of the nation.




The force of Washington's personality, and his influence, was extremely important at the Philadelphia convention that wrote the Constitution. Some say the convention would not have been held had he not agreed to attend. Later, as the first president, he gave the nation a good start. Washington was able to control political disputes in the new government. He would not let them damage the nation's unity. Washington often thought of the future. He wanted the first government to take the right steps. Some things may not seem important in the beginning, he said, but later, they may have bad permanent results. It would be better, he felt, to start his administration right than to try to correct mistakes later, when it might be too late. He hoped to act in such a way that future presidents could continue to build on what he began. Washington had clear, firm ideas about what was right and what was wrong. He loved justice. He also loved the republican form of government. Some people had difficulty seeing this part of the man. Washington looked like an aristocrat. And, at times, he seemed to act like one. He attended many ceremonies. He often rode through the streets in a carriage pulled by six horses. His critics called him "king." Washington opposed rule by kings and dictators. He was shocked that some people talked of having a monarchy in America. He was even more shocked that they did not understand the harm they were doing. Washington warned that this loose talk could lead to an attempt to establish a monarchy in the United States. A monarchy, he said, would be a great victory for the enemies of the United States. It would prove that Americans could not govern themselves. As president, Washington decided to do everything in his power to prevent the country from ever being ruled by a king or dictator. He wanted the people to have as much self-government as possible. Such a government, Washington felt, meant a life of personal freedom and equal justice for the people. The 18th century has been described as an age of reason and enlightenment. Washington was a man of his times. He said no one could feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than he did. He said it was his greatest hope that the policies of that time would bring to everyone those blessings which should be theirs.




Washington was especially happy and proud that the United States would protect people against oppression for their religious beliefs. He did not care which god people worshipped. He felt that religious freedom was a right of every person. Good men, he said, are found all over the world. They can be followers of any religion, or no religion at all. Washington's feelings about racial oppression were as strong as his feelings about religious oppression. Like others of his time, he owned African slaves. But he expressed a hatred of slavery. There was not a man alive, he said, who wished more truly than he did to see an end to slavery. By his order, all his slaves were freed when he died. From the beginning, George Washington was careful to establish a good working relationship with the Congress. He did not attempt to take away any powers given to the Congress by the Constitution. By his actions, he confirmed the separation of powers of the three branches of the government, as described in the Constitution. The Congress, too, was ready to cooperate. It did not attempt to take away any powers given to the president by the Constitution. The Congress, for example, agreed that President Washington had the right to appoint members of his administration. But Congress had the right to approve them. Washington asked some of the nation's wisest and most able men to serve in the new government. For secretary of state, he chose Thomas Jefferson. At the time, Jefferson was America's representative to France. While Congress was considering Jefferson's nomination, Washington heard of threatening events in France. He learned that a mob had captured the old prison called the Bastille. Washington was worried. The United States had depended on France for help during its war for independence. And it still needed French help. A crisis in France could be bad for America. The information Jefferson brought home would prove valuable if the situation in France got worse. Washington also thought Jefferson's advice would be useful in general, not just on French developments. For secretary of the treasury, Washington chose Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had served as one of Washington's aides during the Revolutionary War.




For chief justice of the United States, he chose John Jay. Jay helped write the Federalist Papers. These are considered the best explanation of the Constitution ever written. Two delegates to the constitutional convention were named associate justices of the Supreme Court: James Wilson and John Rutledge. For attorney general, Washington wanted a good lawyer and someone who supported the Constitution. The attorney general is the nation's top law enforcement official. For that job, Washington chose Edmund Randolph of Virginia. It was Randolph who proposed the Virginia Plan to the Philadelphia convention. The plan became the basis for the Constitution. Randolph refused to sign the Constitution, because he did not believe it could be approved. But later he worked to help win Virginia's approval of the Constitution. President Washington nominated his cabinet members, and the Congress approved them. The president was ready to begin work on the nation's urgent problems. And there were many. One problem was Spain's control of the lower part of the Mississippi River. American farmers needed to use the river to transport their crops to market. But the Spanish governor in Louisiana closed the Mississippi to American boats. There also were problems with Britain. The United States had no commercial treaty with Britain. And Britain had sent no representative to the new American government. Equally urgent were the new nation's economic problems. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the American army during the revolution. The other was the creation of a national financial system. Both issues needed quick action. Finding solutions to these issues would be the job of President Washington's treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. That will be our story next time. I'm Steve Ember, inviting you to join us each week here at VOA Learning English for The Making of a Nation, American history in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/george-washington-first-president/1621597.html


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26. Positioning Agriculture at the Center of Climate Talks.

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This June in Brazil, delegates will mark the twentieth anniversary of what is commonly known as the Earth Summit. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development took place in Rio de Janeiro in nineteen ninety-two. One of the issues that the delegates plan to discuss in June at Rio+20 is the role of agriculture in climate change. A recent article written by a team of scientists says agriculture should be a top priority in climate change negotiations. It says there was some progress in this area, but not much, at the United Nations climate conference in December in Durban, South Africa. The article "What Next for Agriculture After Durban?" appeared in the journal Science. Britain's chief scientific adviser, Sir John Beddington, led the international team that wrote it to try to influence policy makers.




Molly Jahn from the University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of those authors. MOLLY JAHN: "Well, agriculture is important, period, because of the imperative of food security. And we're falling short there in significant ways that have come to our attention, especially recently with the significant price shocks." Prices on the world market have remained high since the food crisis of two thousand seven and two thousand eight. Professor Jahn says agriculture is a major producer of greenhouse gases blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere. But agriculture also offers ways to lessen their effects with known and proven farming practices. MOLLY JAHN: "So it represents both an activity that’s essential for our survival -- an activity that is threatened by climate change, especially in vulnerable parts of the world -- and an opportunity to better manage meeting our needs, while we reduce the emissions of various greenhouse gases that are accumulating in the atmosphere." Professor Jahn says moving toward "climate-smart agriculture" should be at the center of policy considerations. The scientists call for efforts to reduce the huge amount of food that gets wasted or goes bad before it can be eaten. Professor Jahn says another recommendation is for farmers to plant more crops that put less pressure on the environment. MOLLY JAHN: "Given current knowledge, there's a great deal we can do within current budgets and within current economic structures that will bring us forward to a better place with respect to agricultural practices in the developing and in the developed world." The article says the "integration of agriculture in the climate change negotiating process" has been moving slowly. But, it says, at the same time climate change and population growth have been moving much faster. The article calls on scientists to play a bigger part in the issue by making sure climate change negotiators have clear data available. Such information, they say, could help increase investment in agriculture. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Arick Simms. I'm Jin Tedder.




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27. American History: Creativity Reached New Heights During Great Depression.

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. Hard economic times and social conflict have always offered a rich source of material for artists and writers. A painter's colors can show the drying of dreams or the flight of the human spirit. A musician can express the tensions and uncertainty of a people in struggle. The pressures of hard times can be the force to lift a writer's imagination to new heights.




So it was during the nineteen thirties in the United States. The severe economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- created an atmosphere for artistic imagination and creative expression. The common feeling of struggle also led millions of Americans to look together to films, radio, and other new art forms for relief from their day-to-day cares. This week in our series, we tell about American arts and popular culture during the nineteen thirties. The most popular sound of the nineteen thirties was a new kind of music called “Swing.” And the "King of Swing" was a clarinet player named Benny Goodman. Benny Goodman and other musicians made swing music extremely popular during the nineteen thirties. Swing was a new form of jazz. Many of its first players were black musicians in small, unknown groups. It was only when more well-known white musicians started playing swing in the middle nineteen thirties that the new music became wildly popular. One reason for the popularity of swing music was the growing power of radio during the nineteen thirties. Radio had already proven in earlier years that it could be an important force in both politics and popular culture. Millions of Americans bought radios during the nineteen twenties. But radio grew up in the nineteen thirties. SINGING SAM: “Howdy, Folks. Yes, it is your old friend Singing Sam, so let’s just settle back and reminisce a bit, what you say, huh?” Producers became more skillful in creating programs. And actors and actresses began to understand the special needs and power of this new electronic art form. Swing was not the only kind of music that radio helped make popular. The nineteen thirties also saw increasing popularity for traditional, classical music by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and other great composers. In nineteen thirty, the Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS, began a series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday afternoons. The next year, on Christmas Day, the National Broadcasting Company, NBC, began weekly opera programs from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.




In nineteen thirty-seven, NBC asked Arturo Toscanini of Italy to lead an orchestra on American radio. Toscanini was the greatest orchestra leader of his day. Millions of Americans listened on Christmas night as Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra began playing the first of ten special radio concerts. It was a great moment for both music and radio. For the first time, millions of average Americans were able to hear classical music by great composers as it was being played. Music was an important reason why millions of Americans gathered to listen to the radio during the nineteen thirties. But even more popular were the many series of weekly programs, whether comedy, suspense, or drama. FRED FOY (ANNOUNCER): “'The Lone Ranger Rides Again.' Easy, steady, big fella.” Families would gather around the radio, and thrill to the adventures of “The Lone Ranger,” or laugh at the funny experiences of such comics as Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen and his wooden ventriloquist’s dummy Charlie McCarthy, WC Fields, and George Burns and Gracie Allen. ANNOUNCER: “Yes, it’s ‘Maxwell House Coffee Time,’ starring George Burns and Gracie Allen.” Radio helped people forget the difficult conditions of the Great Depression. And it helped to bring Americans together and share experiences. Swing music. Classical music. Great comedy programs. The nineteen thirties truly were a golden period for radio and mass communications. But it was also during this period that Hollywood and the American film industry became much more skilled and influential. In previous years, films were silent. But the "talkies" arrived in the nineteen thirties. Directors could produce films in which actors could talk. Americans reacted by attending film theaters by the millions. It was a great time for Hollywood. The films had exciting new actors. Spencer Tracy. Bette Davis. Katharine Hepburn. The young Shirley Temple. The most famous film of the period was "Gone with the Wind" with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in the starring roles of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara.




RHETT BUTLER: “No, I don’t think I will kiss you, although you need kissing badly. That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.” SCARLETT O’HARA: “Oh, and I suppose you think you’re the proper person.” RHETT BUTLER: “I might be. If the right moment ever came.” Directors in the nineteen thirties also produced such great films as "It Happened One Night," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "The Life of Emile Zola." The success of radio and films, as well as the depression itself, caused problems for many Americans newspapers during the nineteen thirties. The trouble was not so much that readers stopped buying newspapers. It was that companies talked about their products through advertisements on radio instead of buying advertising space in newspapers. GRACIE ALLEN: “Another cup of Maxwell House coffee, George?” GEORGE BURNS: “Sure, pour me a cup, Gracie.” GRACIE ALLEN: “You know, Maxwell House is always good to the last drop.” GEORGE BURNS: “And that drop’s good, too.” ANNOUNCER: “For America’s Thursday night comedy enjoyment, it’s George and Gracie. And for America’s every day coffee drinking enjoyment, it’s Maxwell House. Today, more Americans buy and enjoy Maxwell House than any other brand of coffee at any price.” Nearly half of the nation's independently-published newspapers either stopped publishing or joined larger companies during the nineteen thirties. By World War Two, only one hundred-twenty cities had competing newspapers. Weekly and monthly publications faced the same problem as daily newspapers -- increased competition from radio and films. Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life Magazine and the Reader's Digest. “Life” had stories for everyone about film actors, news events, or just daily life in the home or on the farm. Its photographs were the greatest anywhere. Reader's Digest published shorter forms of stories from other magazines and sources.




Most popular books of the period were like the films coming from Hollywood. Writers cared more about helping people forget their troubles than about facing serious social issues. They made more money that way, too. But a number of writers in the nineteen thirties did produce books that were both profitable and of high quality. One was Sinclair Lewis. His book, "It Can't Happen Here," warned of the coming dangers of fascism. John Steinbeck's great book, "The Grapes of Wrath," helped millions understand and feel in their hearts the troubles faced by poor farmers. Erskine Caldwell wrote about the cruelty of life among poor people in the southeastern United States, and James T. Farrell and Studs Terkel wrote about life in Chicago. The same social concern and desire to present life as it really existed also were clear in the work of many American artists during the nineteen thirties. Thomas Benton painted workers and others with strong tough bodies. Edward Hopper showed the sad streets of American cities. Reginald Marsh painted picture after picture of poor parts of New York City. The federal government created a program that gave jobs to artists. They painted their pictures on the walls of airports, post offices, and schools. The program brought their ideas and creativity to millions of people. Indeed, we are proud to have, in the lobby of our VOA building, several such murals by artist Ben Shahn, capturing many facets of the American experience in the nineteen thirties. At the same time, photography became more important as cameras improved in quality and became smaller and more portable. Some photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans used their cameras to document the difficult conditions of the Depression. The German émigré Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photographs of new events and celebrities appeared regularly on the covers of Life. Alfred Stieglitz was another famous photographer in the nineteen thirties. He not only helped to establish photography as an art form, but was influential through his galleries in introducing avant garde artists from Europe to the public. The nineteen thirties were a particularly productive time for landscape photographer Ansel Adams, who also turned to photographing factories and industrial themes.




All this activity in the arts and popular culture played an important part in the lives of Americans during the nineteen thirties. It not only provided relief from their troubles, but expanded their minds and pushed their imaginations. The tensions and troubles of the Great Depression provided a rich atmosphere for artists and others to produce works that were serious or just plain fun. And those works, in turn, helped make life a little better as Americans waited, worked, and hoped for times to improve. Our program was adapted from a script written by David Jarmul. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/arts-culture-radio-hollywood-great-depression/666865.html


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28. American History: Life in the U.S. After the 9/11 Attacks.

11 de Septiembre de 2001.

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series, we look at America after the events of September eleventh, two thousand one. (MUSIC) DAN RATHER: "A stunning and cowardly strike on the United States. Terrorists send mighty skyscrapers crumbling to the ground. Many innocent people are dead. The president vows the killers will pay for this attack on America."




The United States changed as a result of the September eleventh terrorist attacks. CBS newsman Dan Rather expressed what many Americans were feeling. DAN RATHER: "You will remember this day as long as you live. A series of coordinated terror strikes today at this country, its people, our freedom. Strikes that came without warning." (MUSIC) On the morning of that sunny September day that came to be known as 9/11, the nation came under attack from al-Qaida, an extremist group led by Osama bin Laden. Its targets were world-famous buildings representing America's economic and military power. Al-Qaida operatives hijacked four American passenger airplanes. The hijackers were from Middle Eastern countries. Each group included a pilot trained to fly two kinds of Boeing airliners, the 757 and the 767. At eight forty-six on that morning, one group of hijackers flew a Boeing 767 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Seventeen minutes later, another group flew a second 767 into the Trade Center's South Tower. The planes exploded in fireballs that sent clouds of smoke into the air. The intense heat of the burning jet fuel from the planes caused structural failures that brought down both buildings. About an hour after the first plane hit the World Trade Center, another group of al-Qaida operatives flew a 757 airliner into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Defense Department, in Arlington, Virginia. The plane exploded against a wall of the huge building where more than twenty thousand people worked. A fourth group had taken control of another 757. But some of the passengers on that flight, United 93, had heard about the terrorist attacks through phone calls to their families. Several passengers and crew members attempted to retake control of the plane. It crashed near the town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Investigators later said the hijackers probably planned to attack the Capitol, a major government building in Washington, D.C., where Congress meets. There was also concern that the White House could have been a target. The 9/11 attacks saw the worst loss of lives on American soil since Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty-one. That attack caused the United States to enter World War Two.




GEORGE W. BUSH: "The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger." As expressed by President George W. Bush on 9/11, the attacks left Americans in a state of shock and disbelief. But that was soon replaced by anger and a resolve that this would not be allowed to happen again. GEORGE W. BUSH: "These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they can not touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they can not dent the steel of American resolve." At Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center destruction, rescue efforts continued into the night. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was asked if Arab-American or Muslim groups in New York might be targeted due to the nature of the attacks. RUDY GIULIANI: "Just the opposite. They will receive extra protection. Nobody should engage in group blame. The particular individuals responsible, the groups responsible, that's up to law enforcement, and it's up to the United States government to figure out. And citizens of New York should -- even if they have anger, which is understandable, and very, very strong emotions about this -- it isn't their place to get involved in this. Then, they're just participating in the kind of activity we've just witnessed, and New Yorkers are not like that." And Giuliani spoke of the strength of the spirit of the people of his city. RUDY GIULIANI: "People tonight should say a prayer for the people that we've lost, and be grateful that we're all here. Tomorrow, New York is going to be here, and we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before." (MUSIC) On September twentieth, President Bush went before a joint session of Congress to declare a war on terror. GEORGE W. BUSH: "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. [Applause]" President Bush explained that the war on terror would be different from other wars.




GEORGE W. BUSH: "Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. [Applause] From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." (MUSIC) President Bush demanded that the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan stop sheltering Osama bin Laden and surrender him. The president also called on the Taliban to close terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The Taliban refused. They demanded evidence that Osama bin Laden had been involved in the attacks of 9/11. They said that if such evidence was provided, he would be tried in an Islamic court. The United States refused to provide evidence. (MUSIC) On October seventh, the United States and Britain launched air strikes against Taliban targets. What became known as the War on Terror had begun. Tribal groups from the opposition Northern Alliance led a ground attack. But suicide bombers had killed their leader, Ahmad Shah Masood, on September ninth, two days before the 9/11 attacks. By November, Taliban control began to collapse in several provinces. Taliban forces fled Kabul, the capital. But the ouster of the Taliban government did not mean the end of the war on terror. Some of President Bush's advisers had long supported an invasion of Iraq. As early as October two thousand one, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that military action against Iraq was possible. Government officials accused Iraq of having links to terrorist groups like al-Qaida. They noted that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons. And they said he was seeking to develop biological and nuclear weapons as well. (MUSIC)




In October, two thousand one, Congress passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act. This law provided the government with more power to gather information about suspected terrorists in the United States. Critics said the law invaded constitutional rights to privacy. Civil liberties groups said the Patriot Act gave law enforcement and other agencies too much power. In January two thousand two, President Bush gave his State of the Union report to Congress. He accused some nations of supporting terrorist organizations. He said the United States would not wait to be attacked by such groups. Instead, it would strike first at the countries that sheltered them. The president identified three nations – North Korea, Iran and Iraq -- as supporters of terror. GEORGE W. BUSH: "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred." (MUSIC) In two thousand two, the United States opened a detention center at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some of the fighters arrested in Afghanistan were sent there. They were not considered prisoners of war. Instead, the detainees were treated as "unlawful enemy combatants." As such, the Bush administration said they did not have the same rights as war prisoners under international treaties. In the United States, the government also detained some foreign citizens, mostly for violating immigration laws. No terrorism charges were brought against these detainees. Human rights activists and some legal experts protested the detentions. After 9/11, government agencies were criticized for failing to prevent the terrorist attacks. Critics said the agencies should have been working together to gather intelligence. Government officials said part of the issue involved legal restrictions on the gathering and sharing of intelligence. (MUSIC) The attacks of 9/11 had a major effect on the commercial aviation industry. The skies over Washington and other cities became strangely silent. Washington's busy Ronald Reagan National Airport was closed for several weeks after the attacks. When it reopened, new security measures for inspecting passengers and their belongings were put in place. Similar measures were in force at other airports across the nation.




Fears over safety among the traveling public led to a drop in the number of airline passengers. As a result, the airlines began to use smaller planes. Costly changes were necessary to "harden" the cockpit, to prevent more terrorist attacks. The increased security led to delays and other problems. But slowly, Americans began to fly again in greater numbers. But airlines had to work hard to win back the trust of the traveling public. (SOUND: United Airlines commercial) One carrier, United, ran a low-key television advertising campaign, in which actor Robert Redford, at the end of each ad gently suggested ROBERT REDFORD: "It's time to fly." In January two thousand three, the Department of Homeland Security opened for business. ANNOUNCER: "Maybe you see something suspicious, but you don't want to get involved. It's nothing, you think. Can you be sure?" There was a lot to do. ANNOUNCER: "If you see something, say something. Report suspicious activity to local authorities." Transportation security, immigration, law enforcement, border protection. It represented the biggest government reorganization in more than half a century. All or part of twenty-two federal agencies and departments were combined into the new agency. Its job: to keep America safe in a world that had changed in a single day. (MUSIC) The War on Terror, which began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, escalated in March 2003, when a coalition of American-led forces invaded Iraq. The mission, as stated by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people." The war in Iraq will be our story next week.




I'm Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2012/04/05/0045/


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29. Thomas Edison, 1847-1931: America's Great Inventor.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around the world. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison's major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the eighteen hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the twentieth century. It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light.




These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions. VOICE TWO: Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented. At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator. He later worked in many different places. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election. VOICE ONE: In the summer months of eighteen sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device. The company paid him forty thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time. This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions. Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a "big trick" about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and it would be invented. VOICE TWO: Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy.




He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in nineteen seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions. The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions. Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music. Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound. VOICE TWO: The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again -- the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important. Before the electric light was invented, light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light. Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful. He and his employees began work on the electric light. VOICE ONE: An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament. Time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked. At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not have electricity. There was no need for it.




Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry. VOICE TWO: Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film. When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything -- a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison's motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called "The Great Train Robbery." It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. "The Great Train Robbery" started the huge motion picture industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains. Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of researchers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States. Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen thirty-one. In the months before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one thousand ninety-three. (MUSIC)




ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2007/03/18/0045/





30. How Culture Affected Shakespeare, and He Affected Culture.

VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we complete our story about the influential English writer William Shakespeare. He wrote plays and poems during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. They remain very popular today. VOICE TWO: Last week, we talked about Shakespeare's history, his plays, and his poems. Today, we talk about the events and cultural influences that affected Shakespeare and his art. We also discuss the countless ways his works have influenced language and popular culture.




VIOLA: "Master Shakespeare ... [Dancing] Good sir, I heard you are a poet ... [Shakespeare smiles, silent] But a poet of no words?" VOICE ONE: That was part of a dancing scene from the popular nineteen ninety-eight movie "Shakespeare in Love." The film suggests one way in which Shakespeare might have been influenced to write "Romeo and Juliet:" because of his relationship with a brave and lovely woman. The movie is only very loosely based on real events, but it is a wonderful story. VOICE TWO: Many of Shakespeare's works were influenced by earlier writings. During this time, students would probably have learned several ancient Roman and Greek plays. It was not unusual for writers to produce more current versions of these works. For example, in his play "The Comedy of Errors" Shakespeare borrows certain structural details from the ancient Roman playwright Plautus. VOICE ONE: For his tragic play "Macbeth," Shakespeare most likely used a work on Scottish history by Raphael Holinshed for information. It is also no accident that this play about a Scottish king was written a few years after James the First became King of England in sixteen-oh-three. This new ruler was from Scotland and London was alive with Scottish culture. Shakespeare may have borrowed from other writers, but the intensity of his imagination and language made the plays his own. VOICE TWO: Shakespeare was also influenced by the world around him. He describes the sights and sounds of London in his plays. His works include observations about current political struggles, the fear of diseases, and the popular language of the city's tradesmen and other professionals. Shakespeare's knowledge of the English countryside is also clear. His works include descriptions of deep forests, local flowers, and the ancient popular traditions of rural people.




VOICE ONE: Shakespeare became a well-known writer during a golden age of theater. His years of hard work paid off. Over the years, he invested income from his acting company by purchasing land and other property. He retired to the countryside a wealthy man. William Shakespeare died in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon in sixteen-sixteen at the age of fifty-two. While many plays by other writers of his time have been forgotten, Shakespeare and his art live on. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It would be impossible to list all of the ways in which Shakespeare's works have influenced world culture. But we can give a few important examples. The first example would have to include his great effect on the English language. During his time, the English language was changing. Many new words from other languages were being added. VOICE ONE: Shakespeare used his sharp mind and poetic inventiveness to create hundreds of new words and rework old ones. For example, he created the verb "to torture" and the noun forms of "critic," "mountaineer" and "eyeball." Many common expressions in English come from his plays. These include "pomp and circumstance" from "Othello," "full circle" from "King Lear" and "one fell swoop" from "Macbeth." The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is the home of the largest collection of Shakespearean materials in the world. For example, it contains seventy-nine copies of the first printed collection of Shakespeare's plays. The First Folio was published in sixteen twenty-three, after his death. It contained thirty-six of his plays. Without this important publication, eighteen of Shakespeare's plays would have been lost. The Folger also has more than two hundred examples of Shakespeare's Quartos. These earlier publications of the plays were smaller and less costly to print. You might be wondering which versions of Shakespeare's plays are read today. Scholars who work on publishing many of the plays make careful choices about whether to use words from the First Folio, or the Quartos. The Folger Library also holds exhibits about the Renaissance period and Shakespearean culture.




VOICE TWO: The list of cultural creations influenced by Shakespeare is almost endless. From paintings to television to music and dance, Shakespeare is well represented. For example, the nineteenth century "Otello" by Giuseppe Verdi is an opera version of the tragic play "Othello." It is about a ruler who believes wrongly that his wife has been with another man. One famous song from this opera includes the wife, Desdemona, mournfully singing "Ave Maria." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over a century later, the American songwriter Cole Porter transformed the Shakespeare comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" into the musical play "Kiss Me Kate." The musical was later made into a movie. Songs like "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" are popular favorites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-seven the famous jazz musician Duke Ellington released "Such Sweet Thunder." In the song "The Telecasters" Duke Ellington musically recreates the three witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Ellington uses three trombone instruments. His use of silent breaks adds a special tension to the song. (MUSIC: "The Telecasters") VOICE ONE: Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim worked together on a modern version of "Romeo and Juliet." Their popular musical play took place on the West Side of New York City. The opposing groups are a gang of young people and a group of new immigrants. The award-winning movie version came out in nineteen sixty-one. Here the main character Maria sings about the happiness of being in love in "I Feel Pretty." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is not just new versions of the plays that live on in popular culture. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into every major language in the world. All across the United States, the plays are performed in schools, theaters and festivals. There are over one hundred Shakespeare festivals and many permanent theaters that perform his works. In Washington, D.C., alone two theaters perform the plays of Shakespeare and other writers of his time.




We leave you with words of praise by Ben Jonson, a playwright who lived during Shakespeare's time. Mister Jonson knew long ago that the works of Shakespeare would hold their magic through the ages. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: "Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time!" VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/a-23-2010-01-12-voa6-84659537/114018.html


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«The greatest revolution of my generation is the discovery

that by changing the inner attitudes of your mind,

you can change the outer aspects of your life».

William James.




31. American History: D-Day Invasion of Europe.

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week marks the anniversary of the D-Day invasion of June sixth, nineteen forty-four. It was largest amphibious assault in history, and it led to the end of World War Two in Europe. Allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy, France. The invasion marked a turning point in the war in Europe, as Hitler’s hold on the continent began to crumble. On today’s MAKING OF A NATION we take you back to that event, beginning with a decision by the Allied Commander General Dwight David Eisenhower. (MUSIC) On June fifth, nineteen forty-four, a huge Allied force waited for the order to invade German-occupied France. The invasion had been planned for the day before. But a storm forced a delay.




At three-thirty in the morning, the Allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, was meeting with his aides. The storm still blew outside the building. General Eisenhower and the other generals were discussing whether they should attack the next day. A weatherman entered the room. He reported that the weather would soon improve. All eyes turned toward Eisenhower. The decision was his. His face was serious. And for a long time he was silent. Finally he spoke. "Okay," he said. "We will go." (MUSIC) And so the largest military invasion ever known, D-Day, took place on June sixth, nineteen-forty-four. The German leader, Adolph Hitler, had known the invasion was coming. But he did not know where the Allied force would strike. Most Germans expected the Allies would attack at Calais. But they were wrong. Eisenhower planned to strike along the French coast of Normandy, across the English Channel. The Second World War was then almost five years old. The Germans had won the early battles and gained control of most of Europe. But in nineteen forty-two and forty-three, the Allies slowly began to gain back land from the Germans in North Africa, Italy and Russia. And now, finally, the British, American, Canadian and other Allied forces felt strong enough to attack across the English Channel. Eisenhower had one hundred fifty thousand men and twelve thousand planes for the attack. But most importantly, he had surprise on his side. Even after the invasion began, General Erwin Rommel and other German military leaders could not believe that the Allies had really attacked at Normandy. But attack they did. On the night of June fifth, thousands of Allied soldiers parachuted behind German lines. (SOUND) Then Allied planes began dropping bombs on German defenses. And in the morning, thousands of ships approached the beaches, carrying men and supplies.




The battle quickly became fierce and bloody. The Germans had strong defenses. They were better protected than the Allied troops on the beaches. But the Allied soldiers had greater numbers. Slowly they moved forward on one part of the coast, then another. (MUSIC) DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "People of Western Europe: a landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force." General Dwight Eisenhower DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "This landing is part of a concerted United Nations plan for the liberation of Europe. I have this message for all of you: Although the initial assault may not have been made in your own country, the hour of your liberation is approaching. All patriots -- men and women, young and old -- have a part to play in the achievement of final victory. "To members of resistance movements, whether led by nationals or by outside leaders, I say: Follow the instructions you have received. To patriots who are not members of organized resistance groups, I say: Continue your passive resistance, but do not needlessly endanger your lives. Wait until I give you the signal to rise and strike the enemy." The Allies continued to build up their forces in France. Within one week they brought nearly ninety thousand vehicles and six hundred-thousand men into France. And they pushed ahead. Hitler was furious. He screamed at his generals for not blocking the invasion. And he ordered his troops from nearby areas to join the fight and stop the Allied force. But the Allies would not be stopped. (MUSIC) In late August, the Allied forces liberated Paris from the Germans. People cheered wildly as General Charles de Gaulle and Free French troops marched into the center of the city. The Allies then moved east into Belgium. They captured the port of Antwerp. This made it easier for them to send supplies and fuel to their troops. Only when Allied troops tried to move into the Netherlands did the Germans succeed in stopping them. American forces won battles at Eindhoven and Nijmegen. But German forces defeated British "Red Devil" troops in a terrible fight at Arnhem.




Germany's brief victory stopped the Allied invasion for the moment. But in less than four months, General Eisenhower and the Allied forces had regained almost all of France. (MUSIC) At the same time, in nineteen forty-four, the Soviets were attacking Germany from the east. Earlier, Soviet forces had succeeded in breaking German attacks at Stalingrad, Moscow and Leningrad. Soviet forces recaptured Russian cities and farms one by one. They entered Finland, Poland, and Romania. By the end of July, Soviet soldiers were just fifteen kilometers from the Polish capital, Warsaw. What happened next was one of the most terrible events of the war. Moscow radio called on the people of Poland to rise up against the German occupation forces. Nearly forty thousand men in the Polish underground army listened to the call. And they attacked the Germans. The citizens of Warsaw probably could have defeated the German occupation forces if the Soviet army had helped them. But Soviet leader Josef Stalin betrayed the Poles. He knew that many members of the Polish underground forces opposed Communism as much as they opposed the Germans. He feared they would block his efforts to establish a new Polish government that was friendly to Moscow. For this reason, Stalin held his forces outside Warsaw. He waited while the Germans and Poles killed each other in great numbers. The Germans finally forced the citizens of Warsaw to surrender. The real winner of the battle, however, was the Soviet Union. Both the Germans and the Poles suffered heavy losses during the fighting. The Soviet Army had little trouble taking over the city with the help of Polish Communists. And after the war, the free Polish forces were too weak to oppose a Communist government loyal to Moscow. (SOUND) Adolf Hitler was in serious trouble. Allied forces were attacking from the west. Soviet troops were passing through Poland and moving in from the east. And at home, several German military officials tried to assassinate him. The German leader narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in a meeting room. But Hitler refused to surrender. Instead, he planned a surprise attack in December nineteen-forty-four. He ordered his forces to move quietly through the Ardennes Forest and attack the center of the Allied line. He hoped to break through the line, separate the Allied forces, and regain control of the war.




(MUSIC) The Germans attacked American troops tired from recent fighting in another battle. It was winter. The weather was so bad that Allied planes could not drop bombs on the German forces. The Germans quickly broke through the American line. But the German success did not last long. Allied forces from nearby areas raced to the battle front to help. And good weather allowed Allied planes to begin attacking the Germans. The battle ended by the middle of the following month in a great defeat for Hitler and the Germans. The German army lost more than one hundred thousand men and great amounts of supplies. The end of the war in Europe was now in sight. By late February, nineteen forty-five, the Germans were forced to retreat across the Rhine River. American forces led by General George Patton drove deep into the German heartland. To the east, Soviet forces also were marching into Germany. It did not take long for the American and Soviet forces to meet in victory. The war in Europe was ending. Adolf Hitler waited until Russian troops were destroying Berlin. Bombs and shells were falling everywhere. In his underground bunker, Hitler took his own life by shooting himself in the head. Several of his closest aides also chose to die in the "Fuehrerbunker." (MUSIC). One week later, the German army surrendered to Eisenhower and the Allies. WINSTON CHURCHILL: "Yesterday morning at two forty-one a.m. at General Eisenhower’s headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command and of Grand Admiral Doenitz, the designated head of the German state, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Forces, and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. WINSTON CHURCHILL: "Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday, the eighth of May. We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing. Today is Victory in Europe Day. Long live the cause of freedom."




STEVE EMBER: The defeat of Germany was cause for great celebration in Britain, the United States and other Allied nations. But two facts made the celebrations less joyful than they might have been. (MUSIC) One was the discovery by Allied troops of the German death camps. Only at the end of the war did most of the world learn that the Nazis had murdered millions of innocent Jews and other people. The second fact was that the Pacific War had not ended. Japanese and American forces were still fighting bitterly. The war in the Pacific will be our story next week. Our program was written by David Jarmul. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/american-history-d-day-invasion/1204295.html


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Three Maps about D-Day. 1)

2)




3)




32. The Imagination of Alexander Hamilton.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. Today we begin the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the nation's most important early policy makers. The first government of the United States was weak. It had many debts and an empty treasury. Its support from the people was not firm. There was some question about its future. Many wondered if it would last. In a few years, however, there was a change. This change was produced in large part by the energy and imagination of one man, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton wanted to make the United States a strong and important nation. He wanted it to become the equal of the powerful nations of Europe. Here are Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver with our story.




(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton firmly believed that no country could become a modern nation without industry. So, he carefully developed a program that would make the United States an industrial nation. He also organized the nation's finances. This was done by establishing government credit and a national bank. The bank increased the flow of money needed for investment. It fed the needs of business and commercial activity. The need for money had brought much of this activity to a stop. Finally, Hamilton took steps to protect American manufacturers from foreign competition. He did this by establishing a system of import taxes -- tariffs -- on some foreign goods brought into American ports. These import taxes forced foreign manufacturers to raise their prices. As a result, American manufacturers had much less competition in selling their products. VOICE TWO: Such a tariff system, Hamilton hoped, would strengthen American industry. He thought the United States should not have to depend on other nations for the things it needed. Such a system, he believed, would create a demand for all kinds of workers. It would increase immigration from other countries. And it would bring a new and greater demand for American farm products. Hamilton's financial program helped manufacturers. But it did not seem to do much for farmers. There was a loud protest, especially among farmers in the south. Everything he did, they said, helped the industrial and banking interests of the north. Yet the farmers had to pay more for the manufactured goods they needed. At the same time, they had to sell their crops at lower prices. VOICE ONE: Hamilton succeeded in getting Congress to approve his financial proposals. Yet his political victories brought him many enemies. And they started a Constitutional debate that continued throughout American history. The dispute involved this question: What exact powers do the government and the Congress have under the Constitution? VOICE TWO: Alexander Hamilton believed the Constitution gave the government a number of powers besides those written down. Otherwise, he said, the government could not work. For example, he believed that under the Constitution, the government had the right to start a national bank. It also had the right to put a tax on imported goods.




Hamilton's opponents disagreed sharply. They did not give the words of the Constitution such a wide meaning. They said the government had just those powers that were clearly spelled out in the Constitution, and nothing more. If not, they said, the government could become dangerously powerful. VOICE ONE: These disputes, and others, helped shape the new United States. In future programs, we will tell more about Alexander Hamilton's influence on political developments. Now, however, we will tell a little about his private life. What kind of man was he? Where did he come from? How did his political and economic beliefs develop? There is much mystery about the early days of Alexander Hamilton. Some facts about his childhood and youth have been clearly established. Others have not. VOICE TWO: His mother was the daughter of French Huguenots who had settled in the West Indies. Her name was Rachel Lavien. Historians are not sure who his father was. One story says he may have been James Hamilton, a poor businessman from Scotland. Rachel Lavien lived with him after she left her husband. One thing is certain. His mother died when he was eleven years old. When she died, friends of the family found work for the boy on the island of Saint Croix -- then called Santa Cruz -- in the Virgin Islands. He was to be an assistant bookkeeper. He would learn how to keep financial records. VOICE ONE: Young Alexander was considered an unusual child. Other children played games. He talked about becoming a political leader in the North American colonies. He read every book that was given to him -- in English, Latin and Greek. At a young age, he learned a great deal about business and economics. And he developed an ability to use words to communicate ideas clearly and powerfully. This ability to write started him on the path to a new life. VOICE TWO: A severe ocean storm hit the West Indies. Hamilton wrote a report about the storm for a newspaper called the Royal Danish American Gazette. His story was so good that some of his friends decided to help him get a good education. They gave him money so he could attend a college in New York City.




The boy's plan was to study medicine and return to Saint Croix as a doctor. VOICE ONE: When Hamilton arrived in New York, he tried to enter King's College, which would later be known as Columbia University. However, he did not have enough education to enter King's College. So he went to a lower school at Elizabethtown, in New Jersey. He was one of the most serious students at the school. He read his books until midnight. Then he got up early and went to a cemetery to continue reading where it was quiet. He wrote many papers. Each time, he tried to improve his style. After a year at Elizabethtown, he was accepted at King's College. VOICE TWO: At King's College, both teachers and students were surprised by Hamilton's intelligence and his clear way of writing and speaking. The problems of the American colonies were very much on the young man's mind. Hamilton protested against British rule. When colonists in the city of Boston seized a British ship and threw its cargo of tea into the water, Hamilton wrote a paper defending them. Then came the year seventeen seventy-six. The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain. The declaration meant war. VOICE ONE: As a boy, Alexander Hamilton had written, "I want success. I would put my life in danger to win success, but not my character. I wish there were a war where I could show my strength." Now, war had come. The American Revolution gave Hamilton the chance to show his abilities. He wanted to be a great military leader. Instead, he became a valuable assistant to the commanding general, George Washington. In this job, he had to use all his political and communication skills to get money and supplies for the Revolutionary Army. Hamilton also would become an influential thinker, writer, and journalist. For many years, he wrote editorials for the newspaper he established, the New York Evening Post. He also helped write the Federalist Papers with James Madison and John Jay. The Federalist Papers are considered the greatest explanation of the United States Constitution ever written.




VOICE TWO: In addition to being a fine writer, Hamilton was a fine speaker, but only to small groups. He spoke the same way that he wrote: clearly, forcefully, and with knowledge. It was this ability that he used so well in the New York state convention that approved the Constitution. More than any other man, it was Alexander Hamilton who made the delegates to that convention change their minds and accept the document. After the new government was formed under the Constitution, Hamilton continued to play an important part in national politics. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Harold Braverman. Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver were the narrators. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2008/04/10/0045/





33. Rio+20 Brings Attention to Sustainable Development.

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Leaders from more than one hundred nations are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a three-day United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. More than forty thousand activists and political and business leaders are also there. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke at the opening of the event, known as the Rio+20. BAN KI-MOON: “We are now in sight of a historic agreement.” Rio+20 marks the twentieth anniversary of the first UN Earth conference, also held in Rio de Janeiro. The conference helped build support for the nineteen ninety-seven Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.




This year, officials are trying to reach final agreement on a document that details goals for reducing poverty while supporting clean energy and sustainable development. The conference will draw attention to seven major issues. The UN says jobs, energy and sustainable cities are of top importance. It notes that food security, water, oceans and dealing with disasters are other issues basic to lifting people out of poverty. The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, took part in a discussion among mayors of some of the world’s largest cities. They talked about measures to cut greenhouse gasses. These gasses are known to trap heat and have been linked to climate change. Cities are responsible for up to seventy-five percent of the gases. Mr. Bloomberg said the world’s mayors are taking the lead on issues like the environment and sustainability. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: "Even as progress at national and international level has faltered, it's fair to say that world cities have forged ahead. And, the reason for that is clear - mayors, the great pragmatists on the world stage who are directly responsible for the well-being for the majority of the world's people, just don't have the luxury to simply talk about change and not delivering it.'' Mayors reported using electric vehicles, better street lighting and improved waste management to reduce cities’ greenhouse emissions. Bindu Lohani is a top official with the Asian Development Bank based in the Philippines. The bank has promised billions to sustainable development. Mr. Lohani said Asia’s fast growth places heavy pressure on the environment and society. BINDU LOHANI: "Asia is growing fast economically. We project by twenty-fifty, more than fifty percent of global economy will be in Asia. Asia is also rich in ecosystems, and therefore, very vulnerable." Still, some environmental activists say the conference document is too weak. They say there are many promises of action but few clear targets for reducing pollution and the use of natural resources. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm June Simms. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/united-nations-rio-summit-sustainable-development/1246181.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/united-nations-rio-summit-sustainable-development/1246181.html

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34. Taking the Frustration Out of Phrasal Verbs.

AA: I'm AviArditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. The first word is a verb. The second word, sometimes even a third, is usually a preposition. Phrasal verbs have a reputation for being tough for English learners. So what does Lida Baker think? LB: "I think that is a myth." RS: "Really." LB: "Phrasal verbs are not hard to learn, as long as you learn them in a context. I think what has given phrasal verbs a reputation for being difficult is the way they are traditionally taught, which is that students are given long lists of verbs -- you know, for instance every phrasal verb connected with the word 'go.' So 'go on,' 'go up,' 'go out,' 'go in,' 'go away,' 'go through,' OK? That's a very tedious way of learning anything." RS: "Well, give us some of your strategies."




LB: "All right. Well, one thing we should keep in mind about phrasal verbs is that they are used a lot more in conversational English than they are in formal English. So you are going to find a lot of phrasal verbs in conversational settings such as ... " RS: "Come on [laughter]." LB: " ... television programs, radio interviews, and pop music is a wonderful, wonderful source for phrasal verbs. I think the best way to learn, or one of the best ways of learning phrasal verbs is to learn them in everyday contexts. One good one is people's daily routine. We 'get up' in the morning, we 'wake up,' we 'put on' our clothes in the morning, we 'take off' our clothes at the end of the day, we 'turn on' the coffee maker or the television set, and of course we 'turn it off' also. After we eat we 'clean up.' If we're concerned about our health and our weight, we go to the gym and we ... " RS: "Work out." LB: "There you go. You see, so as far as our daily routine is concerned, there are lots and lots of phrasal verbs. Another wonderful context for phrasal verbs is traveling. What does an airplane do?" AA: "It 'takes off.'" LB: "It 'takes off,' that's right. And lots of phrasal verbs connected with hotels. So when we get to the hotel we 'check in,' and you can save a lot of money if you ... " RS: "Stay -- " LB: "'Stay over,' right." AA: "And you just have to make sure you don't get 'ripped off.'" LB: "That's right! I'm glad that you mentioned 'ripped off,' because a lot of phrasal verbs are slang, such as ripped off. And most of them do have sort of a formal English equivalent. So to get ripped off means to be treated unfairly ... " AA: "To be cheated." LB: "To be cheated, yeah. And there are lot of other two-word or phrasal verbs that you might find, for instance, in rap music. For example, to 'get down' means to, uh -- what does it mean?" RS: "It means to party, doesn't it?"




LB: "To go to parties." AA: "Have a good time." LB: "Right. Another wonderful context is dating and romance. For example, when a relationship ends two people 'break up.' But when they decide that they've made a mistake and they really are in love and want to be together, they 'call each other up' ... " RS: "And they 'make up.'" LB: "And they make up. Now, if your boyfriend 'breaks up' with you and it's really, really over, then it might take you a few months to 'get over it.' But, you know, sooner or later you're going to find someone else ... " AA: "To 'hook up' with -- " LB: "To hook up with." AA: " -- to use a current idiom." LB: "Right. Or you might meet someone nice at work to 'go out with.'" RS: "So what would you recommend for a teacher to do, to build these contexts, so that the students can learn from them?" LB: "I think the best thing for a teacher to do, or for a person learning alone, is to learn the idioms in context. And there are vocabulary books and idiom books that will cluster the phrasal verbs for the student. There are also so many wonderful Web sites. I mean, if you go to a search engine and you just type in 'ESL + phrasal verbs,' you're going to run across -- and there's another one, 'run across' -- you're going to find lots of Web sites that present phrasal verbs in these contexts that I've been talking about. And also grammar sites which explain the grammar of phrasal verbs, which I haven't gotten into because we just don't have the time to discuss it here. But in doing my research for this segment I found lots of Web sites that do a really great job of explaining the grammar of phrasal verbs." AA: Lida Baker writes and edits textbooks for English learners. You can find earlier segments with Lida at voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm AviArditti.




You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/taking-some-of-the-frustration-out-of-phrasal-verbs-107247254/112914.html


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http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/taking-some-of-the-frustration-out-of-phrasal-verbs-107247254/112914.html



35. Taking the TOEFL.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The TOEFL is an important test for non-native English speakers who want to attend an American college or university. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. And it is the subject this week in our Foreign Student Series. The Educational Testing Service is moving to end the use of the paper-and-pencil version of the TOEFL. And on September thirtieth ETS stopped offering its existing computer test. The new version is called the TOEFL iBT, or Internet-Based Test.




The TOEFL iBT has been used since two thousand five at testing centers in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Puerto Rico. In March of this year, it was expanded to other countries in Europe and to Africa, Eurasia, the Middle East and Latin America. The charge for the TOEFL iBT is different in each country. Until the TOEFL iBT is offered in a country, the pencil-and-paper test will continue to be used. The TOEFL measures the ability to read, write and understand English. The new test represents about ten years of work by ETS. The testing service redesigned it to measure not just knowledge of the language, but the ability to communicate in English. The four-hour test now includes a speaking part, in addition to reading, writing and listening. Each part of the test is worth a possible thirty points. So the highest score on the TOEFL is one hundred twenty points. Different colleges and universities require different minimum scores on the TOEFL. So be sure to find out the score requirements of the schools that interest you. Experts say the best way to prepare for the TOEFL is to use English as much as you can. The TOEFL Web site offers advice to help you prepare. The address is toefl.org More than six thousand schools and agencies in one hundred ten countries use the TOEFL. But students who have already earned degrees from colleges in English-speaking countries may not be required to take it. And recently we received an e-mail asking if another English test can be used instead of the TOEFL when applying to American schools. Listen next week for the answer. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2006/11/09/0041/





36. President Abraham Lincoln Portrait.

VOICE ONE: Today is Presidents' Day in the United States. It is the day to honor all American presidents. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. We tell about one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, on our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Presidents' Day each year on the third Monday of February. But they did not always do so. They used to observe the birthdays of two of the greatest American presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both men were born in the month of February. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February twelfth. George Washington's is February twenty-second.




In Nineteen-Seventy-One, Congress approved a law that affected some national holidays. It changed the official celebration of the holiday to the Monday closest to the real date. The birthdays of the two presidents were celebrated on one day -- the third Monday in February. Later, Congress said the holiday would honor all American presidents. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth American president. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. He grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education. Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. In Eighteen-Sixty, he was elected to the country's highest office. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War between the northern and southern states. This was the most serious crisis in American history. President Lincoln helped end slavery in the nation. And he helped keep the American union from splitting apart during the war. President Lincoln believed that he proved to the world that democracy can be a lasting form of government. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Three, President Lincoln gave what became his most famous speech. Union armies of the north had won two great victories that year. They defeated the Confederate armies of the south at Vicksburg, Mississippi and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held to honor the dead soldiers at a burial place on the Gettysburg battlefield. President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. But his speech has never been forgotten. Historians say the speech defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality. Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most memorable words in American history. He was murdered a few days after the Civil War ended, in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. Yet his words live on. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked composer Aaron Copland to write a piece of music about Abraham Lincoln. Copland was one of the best modern American composers. He wrote many kinds of music. His music told stories about the United States.




Aaron Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor the president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the Civil War. Here is the Seattle Symphony playing part of "Lincoln Portrait." ((TAPE CUT ONE: LINCOLN PORTRAIT)) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters to his "Lincoln Portrait." It has been performed many times in the United States. Many famous people have read the words. To celebrate Presidents' Day, here is actor James Earl Jones reading part of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait": ((TAPE CUT TWO: JAMES EARL JONES, LINCOLN PORTRAIT:)) "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history." That is what he said, That is what Abraham Lincoln said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility" … Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man. But, when he spoke of Democracy, this is what he said: He said: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen, for on the battleground at Gettysburg this is what he said: He said: "That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Al Alevy. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt.




You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2002/02/18/0045/





37. Christopher Columbus and the New World.

Christopher Columbus. STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. (MUSIC) Generations of schoolchildren have been taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. In fact, the second Monday in October is celebrated as a national holiday, Columbus Day, to honor the European explorer.




But October's page on the calendar also has a lesser known observance. October ninth is Leif Erickson Day. Leif Erickson was a Norse explorer who sailed around the northeastern coast of what we now call North America about one thousand years ago. He and his crew returned to Greenland with news of a place he called "Vinland." Following his explorations, a few settlements were built. Experts digging in eastern Canada in the nineteen sixties found the remains of a village with houses like those in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. But the Norse did not establish any permanent settlements in North America. Today, as we relaunch our series, we begin with the story of early European explorers in North America. (MUSIC) In the eleventh century, Europe was beginning a period of great change. One reason was the religious wars known as the Crusades. These were military campaigns by Christians to force Muslims out of the Holy Land in the Middle East. The Crusades began at the end of the eleventh century. They continued for about two hundred years. One effect of the presence of European armies in the Middle East was to increase trade. This trade was controlled by businessmen in Venice and other city-states in Italy. The businessmen earned large profits by supplying the warring armies and by bringing goods from the East into Europe. When the European crusaders returned home, they brought with them some new and useful products. These included spices, perfumes, silk cloth and steel products. These goods became highly valued all over Europe. The increased trade with the East led to the creation and growth of towns along the supply roads. It also created a large number of rich European businessmen. The European nations were growing. They developed armies and governments. These had to be paid for with taxes collected from the people. By the fifteenth century, European countries were ready to explore new parts of the world. The first explorers were the Portuguese. By fourteen hundred, they wanted to control the Eastern spice trade. European businessmen did not want to continue paying Venetian and Arab traders for their costly spices. They wanted to set up trade themselves. If they could sail to Asia directly for these products, the resulting trade would bring huge profits. The leader of Portugal's exploration efforts was Prince Henry, a son of King John the first. He was interested in sea travel and exploration. He became known as Henry the Navigator.




Prince Henry brought experts to his country and studied the sciences involved in exploration. He built an observatory to study the stars. Portuguese sea captains sailed their ships down the west coast of Africa hoping to find a path to India and East Asia. They finally found the end of the African continent, the area called the Cape of Good Hope. It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spice trade. They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and China. Improvements in technology helped them succeed. One improvement was a new kind of ship. It could sail more easily through storms and winds. Other inventions like the compass allowed them to sail out of sight of land. The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon. They used these weapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders. (MUSIC)

Expedition of Christopher Columbus with the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa

Maria




The other European nations would not let Portugal control this spice trade for long, however. Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to provide ships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian named Christopher Columbus. Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean. He was right. But he also was wrong. He believed the world was much smaller than it is. He did not imagine the existence of another continent -- and another huge ocean -- between Europe and East Asia. Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third, fourteen ninety-two, in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. By October twelfth, the sailors stood on land again on an island that Columbus named San Salvador.

Identifying the Island of ‘San Salvador’, Cuba and the Hispaniola, according to Columbus.




He explored that island and the nearby islands of what are now known as Cuba and Hispaniola. He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia, which was then called the Indies. He called the people he found there Indians. Columbus left about forty men on San Salvador island to build a fort from the wood of one of the ships. He returned to Spain with birds, plants, gold -- and people captured from the land he explored. Columbus was welcomed as a hero when he returned to Spain in March of fourteen ninety-three. Columbus sailed again across the Atlantic to the Caribbean five months later. He found that the fort built by his men had been destroyed by fire. Columbus did not find any of his men. But this time, he had many more men and all the animals and equipment needed to start a colony on Hispaniola. Seven months later, he sent five ships back to Spain. They carried Indians to be sold as slaves. Columbus himself also returned to Spain.

Christopher Columbus Voyages.




Christopher Columbus made another trip in fourteen ninety-eight. This time he saw the coast of South America. But the settlers on Hispaniola were so unhappy with conditions in their new colony, they sent Columbus back to Spain as a prisoner. Spain's rulers pardoned him. In fifteen two, Columbus made his final voyage to what some by then were calling the New World. He stayed on the island of Jamaica until he returned home two years later. During all his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searching for that passage to the Indies. He never found it. Nor did he find spices or great amounts of gold. Yet, he always believed that he had found the Indies. He refused to recognize that it really was a new world. Evidence of this was all around him -- strange plants unknown in either Europe or Asia. And a different people who did not understand any language spoken in the East. Columbus' voyages, however, opened up the new world. Others later explored all of North America. You may be wondering about the name of this new land. If Christopher Columbus led the explorations, then why is it called "America"? The answer lies with the name of another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. He visited the coast of South America in fourteen ninety-nine. He wrote stories about his experiences that were widely read in Europe. (MUSIC) In fifteen seven, a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemueller, read Vespucci's stories. He decided that the writer had discovered the new world, and thought it should be called America in his honor. And so it was. Spanish explorers sought to find gold and power in the New World. They also wanted to spread Christianity, which they considered the only true religion. The first of these Spanish explorers was Juan Ponce de Leon. He landed in North America in fifteen thirteen. He explored the eastern coast of what is now the state of Florida. He was searching for a special kind of water that Europeans believed existed. They believed that this water could make old people young again. Ponce de Leon never did find the fountain of youth.




Also in fifteen thirteen, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean. In fifteen nineteen, Hernan Cortes landed an army in Mexico. His army destroyed the ancient empire of the Aztec Indians. That same year Ferdinand Magellan began his three-year voyage around the world. And in the fifteen thirties, the forces of Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca Indian empire in Peru. Ten years later, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had marched as far north as what is now the American state of Kansas and then west to the Grand Canyon. About the same time, Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. Fifty years after Columbus first landed at San Salvador, Spain claimed a huge area of America.

The riches of these new lands made Spain the greatest power in Europe, and the world. But other nations refused to accept Spanish claims to the New World. Explorers from England, France and Holland were also sailing to North America. That will be our story next week. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/columbus-new-world-leif-erickson/1506901.html


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38. Kitchen Chemistry: The Science of Herbs and Spices

FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS a program in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today, we will tell about herbs and spices, and some of their many uses. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: People have been using herbs and spices for thousands of years. Generally, herbs come from the green leaves of plants or vegetables. Spices come from other parts of plants and trees. For example, cinnamon comes from the hard outer cover of cinnamon plants. The spice ginger comes from the part of the ginger plant that grows underground. Some herbs and spices are valued for their taste. They help to sharpen the taste of many foods. Others are chosen for their smell. Still others were used traditionally for health reasons. BOB DOUGHTY: Some herbs and spices may be gaining importance in modern medicine. For example, American researchers say red pepper could help people seeking to lose weight. They say this could be especially true for people who do not usually add spices to their food.




Researchers from Purdue University reported about the effects of red pepper in the journal Physiology & Behavior. They found that small changes in diet, like adding the pepper, may reduce the desire to eat. FAITH LAPIDUS: The spice used in the study was dried and ground cayenne red pepper. Cayenne is a chili pepper. Most chili peppers contain capsaicin -- a substance that makes chili peppers hot. Other studies have shown that capsaicin can reduce hunger and burn calories, the energy stored in food. Over six weeks, twenty-five people of normal weight took part in the study. Thirteen of them liked spicy food. The twelve others did not. The researchers decided how much red pepper each group would receive. One and eight-tenths grams of the pepper was given to each person who liked spicy food. The others received three-tenths of a gram. BOB DOUGHTY: The people who did not normally eat red pepper showed a decreased desire for food. That was especially true for fatty, salty and sweet foods. Purdue University Professor Richard Mattes said the effect may be true only for people who do not usually eat red pepper. He said the effectiveness of the pepper may be lost if spices are normally part of a person’s diet. He said further study needs to be done. The goal is to learn how long the effect of red peppers will last and how to extend the effectiveness. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: The spice turmeric comes from a tropical plant common to India. Research involving turmeric is not new. Scientists have been studying its medical possibilities for many years. For example, researchers in Singapore completed one such study several years ago. The study was based on earlier evidence that turmeric has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities. These qualities can help protect against damage to the body’s tissues and other injuries. BOB DOUGHTY: The researchers said turmeric may reduce evidence of damage in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. For this reason, the researchers designed a study that examined results from a mental-performance test of older Asian adults. The study involved curry, which contains turmeric.




The adults were sixty to ninety-three years old. None had severe memory losses. Those who sometimes ate curry did better on the tests than individuals who rarely or never ate curry. This was also true of those who ate it often or very often. FAITH LAPIDUS: The work of the Mayo Clinic and its medical experts is world famous. In its Health Letter several years ago, the Mayo Clinic provided more evidence that herbs and spices can aid health. Its experts said spices could reduce salt use for people with health conditions like high blood pressure. The experts said some plant chemicals are high in antioxidants. In addition to turmeric, these include cinnamon, ginger, oregano, sage and thyme. The experts also said antioxidants like garlic, rosemary and saffron have qualities that could fight cancer. They also said limited evidence shows that cinnamon, fenugreek and turmeric may affect blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. (MUSIC) You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. With Bob Doughty, I’m Faith Lapidus in Washington. BOB DOUGHTY: Cooking meat at high temperatures in the open air is a favorite activity of many Americans. But the country’s National Cancer Institute warns that this kind of meat preparation creates heterocyclic amines, also known as HCAs. Scientists say HCAs contain substances that probably can help cause cancer. These chemicals form when amino acids react with creatine, a chemical found in muscles. Meats from organs and non-meat protein sources have little or no HCA. Research on HCAs has made some people afraid to cook meat on a barbecue grill. On a grill, the meat heats over coals or a gas or open fire. But studies have found that adding spices to meat before cooking at high temperatures may reduce harmful chemicals. This can be done by preparing a marinade and placing it on the meat before cooking. Marinades usually contain spices and herbs added to vinegar, wine or oil. This liquid mixture also softens the meat. FAITH LAPIDUS: Researchers from Kansas State University experimented with marinades and meat in a study published in two thousand eight. The researchers placed some steaks in already prepared marinades.




The meat then was heated for five minutes on each side at a temperature of more than two hundred degrees Celsius. The researchers also cooked steaks marinated without spices, and steaks that were not marinated. They were prepared at the same temperature as meat with the marinade mixes. The researchers compared levels of the HCAs in all the steaks. They found that the HCAs in the meat marinated in spices had decreased up to eighty- eight percent. BOB DOUGHTY: Other unwanted substances, called PAHs, can be found in some meat cooked at high temperatures. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these chemicals probably cause cancer. PAHs form when animal fat drops onto hot coals. The fat makes flames from the coals rise, leaving the PAHs on the meat. Purdue University experts have a suggestion for preventing this. They advise people to use cooking tools that do not break the skin of the meat when turning it on the barbecue grill. And they say placing the meat in a marinade before grilling is helpful. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: Herbs and spices are not used just to lessen unwanted chemical effects. They make food taste better. Some spices also destroy bacteria. Spices have long been used to keep food safe to eat. In the past, spices also helped to prevent the wasting away of dead bodies. Herb and spice plants grow in many countries. For example, the Molucca Islands in Indonesia are famous for producing spices like cloves, nutmeg and mace. Vanilla comes from orchid plants growing in South America and other places with warm, moist weather. BOB DOUGHTY: Spices have influenced world history. Ancient trade routes brought spices and silk to the Mediterranean Sea area beginning more than six thousand years ago. The Goth people of Europe defeated Roman forces in battle more than sixteen centuries ago. After the fighting ended, the leader of the Goths is said to have demanded five-thousand pounds of gold and three thousand pounds of pepper. In later years, Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus discovered new lands while seeking to extend trade with spice-growing areas in Asia. The Italian cities of Genoa and Venice became powerful because they were at the center of the spice trade. The trade was so important to national economies that rulers launched wars in their struggle to control spices. (MUSIC)




FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Faith Lapidus. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/kichen-chemistry-the-science-of-herbs-and-spices/1418361.html


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39. IB Program Aims to Form 'Students of the World'.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The International Baccalaureate Organization was founded in nineteen sixty-eight. It works with schools in one hundred forty-three countries to offer programs for students age three to nineteen. These programs, it says, "help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world." The organization says IB programs are in more than three thousand schools. The majority of these schools offer IB diploma programs. High school students have to complete six courses, pass exams and write a twenty-page paper to earn an IB diploma. The courses are in humanities, science, arts, math, a second language and their own language.




Students can also attend special events. Recently more than three hundred IB diploma students from thirteen countries attended a conference at the University of British Columbia in Canada. The five-day conference was called "The New Sustainability: Making Things Better, Not Just Less Bad." The students heard from professors, graduate students, activists and others. One of the speakers was Drew Deutsch, director of IB Americas. He says the conference was meant as a way for students not only to learn about the environment, but also to develop lasting relationships. DREW DEUTSCH: "We want to send the students back to their schools to highlight issues surrounding protecting the environment, but also make sure these students become more students of the world, and that they form bonds with peers their own age from around the world. And, obviously, with social networking and the tools that are available to students today, we expect that they will have formed these bonds really for life." Seventeen-year-old Itzel Chavez is a student at the International School of Beaverton, in the American state of Oregon. She was one of twenty-one IB students who received scholarships to be able to attend the conference. ITZEL CHAVEZ: "I really wanted to go. So I applied for a scholarship and I had to write an essay. And in my school they chose one person, and I got chosen for the scholarship. So I got to go." She says the main speakers would describe a sustainability program or tell how a special project improved the environment in their community. Then the students had to choose a project to present to the conference. ITZEL CHAVEZ: "We would get into groups of about nineteen or twenty students and we would have to come up with a project for the end of the week that showed what we learned." Itzel worked on a video. It asked students three questions about sustainability and how they would make it happen in their own communities. After showing it, the members of the group went on stage to tell what they themselves would do to protect the environment. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/international-baccalaureate-high-school-/1476743.html


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40. Why exercise is so important.

BOB DOUGHTY: This is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. I’m Bob Doughty. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Today, we will tell why exercise is so important. And we will tell about some popular ways to get in good shape. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Health experts have long noted the importance of physical activity. Exercise not only improves your appearance. It can also improve your health. Exercise helps to reduce the risk of some diseases. They include heart disease, stroke, type-two diabetes, osteoporosis and even some kinds of cancer.




America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In two thousand six, heart disease killed more than six hundred thirty thousand Americans. High blood pressure and high cholesterol levels in blood can increase your risk of heart disease. Medical experts say both can be reduced through normal exercise. VOICE TWO: Physical activity is also known to increase the release of endorphins. These chemicals reduce feelings of pain. They also help people feel more happy and peaceful. There is some debate about exactly what causes the brain to release endorphins. Some experts believe it is the act of exercising itself. Others say it is the feeling one gets from having met an exercise goal. Either way, the two things work together when it comes to improving one’s emotional health. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Exercise improves your energy levels by increasing the flow of blood to the heart and blood vessels. One of the main reasons people exercise is to control or reduce their weight. Physical activity burns calories – the energy stored in food. The more calories you burn, the easier it is to control or reduce your weight. So exactly how much exercise do you need to do to gain all of these great health effects? Experts say it is easier than you think. In two thousand eight, the Centers for Disease Control released its first ever Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The report included suggestions for young people, adults, disabled persons and those with long-term health problems. One of the major ideas noted in the report was that some activity is better than none. So if you are not doing anything, now is the time to get started. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The CDC defines physical activity as anything that gets your body moving. And, it says there are two separate, but equally important kinds of physical activity. Aerobic or cardio exercise gets your heart rate going faster and increases your breathing. Some examples are activities like walking at an increased speed, dancing, swimming or riding a bicycle. Muscle-strengthening activities help build and strengthen muscle groups in the body. This kind of exercise includes lifting weights, or doing sit-ups and push-ups. (MUSIC)




BOB DOUGHTY: To get the most from your exercise plan, experts say adults should get at least two and a half hours of aerobic exercise each week. More intense activities reduce the suggested amount of time to one hour and fifteen minutes. Some examples are playing basketball, swimming and distance running. Earlier advice from the CDC said people need to exercise thirty minutes each day for at least five days to get the health benefits of exercise. More recent research suggested that those gains are the same whether you exercise for short periods over five days or longer sessions over two or three days. In addition, the newer suggestions say any exercise plan should include at least two days of muscle training. Each exercise period should be at least ten minutes long. The total amount of activity should be spread over at least two days throughout the week. Most importantly, experts say people should choose physical activities that they find fun. This helps to guarantee that they stay with the program. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: So, what are some of the most popular forms of exercise in the United States? Walking tops the list. A two thousand six report from the CDC found that more than seventy-nine million Americans walk to stay physically fit. For many people, it is considered the easiest way to get exercise. It does not require a health club membership. Walking is safe. And it is said be to as valuable for one’s health as more intense forms of exercise like jogging. Walking is also said to be less damaging to the knees and feet. This makes it a better choice of exercise for older adults. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Another popular form of exercise is jogging, or running at a slow to medium speed. USA Track and Field Hall of Famer Bill Bowerman was credited with bringing jogging to the United States in the nineteen seventies. He did so after witnessing the popularity of the activity himself during a trip to New Zealand in the nineteen sixties. He started the first running club in America and wrote a book about jogging for fitness. Bill Bowerman also helped establish Nike, the tennis shoe company. Jogging provides great physical conditioning for the heart and lungs. And, it increases the flow of blood and oxygen in the body. All of these things combined help to improve heart activity, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and reduce bone and muscle loss. Running is also a good way to lose weight. People burn an average of one hundred sixty calories a kilometer while running.




SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Census Bureau says swimming was the second most popular sports activity in the United States in two thousand eight. The top activity was exercise walking. Swimming is said to be one of the best ways to exercise. Nearly all of the major muscle groups are put to work. Swimming also presents less risk of muscle and joint injury because of the body’s weightlessness in water. This makes it a great choice of exercise for people with special needs, like pregnant women, older adults, and persons who are overweight. Some people have questioned whether swimming burns as many calories as other forms of exercise. But one thing is sure: the effects on your health are just as great. Water aerobics is another popular form of exercise. This can be anything from walking or running against the resistance of water, to doing jumping jacks in the water. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Dancing can also be a fun way to exercise. This is especially true for those who see exercise as a necessary evil: something they should do, not something they want to do. A dance-fitness program called Zumba has grown in popularity in recent years. Zumba is said to be one of the fastest-growing group programs in the physical fitness industry today. Alberto Beto Perez created Zumba in his native Colombia in the nineteen nineties. His dance-fitness program is based on salsa, meringue, and other forms of Latin American music. Mr. Perez brought the program to the United States in two thousand one. Since then it has spread around the world. The Zumba website says its classes are now offered in more than one hundred thousand gyms, fitness studios and dance clubs around the world. That is up from about two thousand locations in two thousand six. The website also says that more than twelve million people now attend Zumba classes in one hundred twenty-five countries. (MUSIC)




Work your Way up. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Whatever kind of exercise you choose, experts agree that you should start small and work your way up. Start by exercising ten minutes a day two times a week. After a few weeks, increase your time to fifteen or twenty minutes, and increase the number of days. Next, aim to increase the intensity of your workout. If you have been walking, trying walking faster, or take turns between walking and jogging. And try not to forget those muscle strengthening exercises. The more time you spend exercising, the more health benefits you get. Health experts advise people who have been physically inactive to have a complete physical exam before beginning a new exercise program. If one of the goals of your exercise program is to lose weight, you will also need to change how and what you eat. Next week we will look at the influence of diet on your weight loss efforts. (MUSIC)




BOB DOUGHTY: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by June Simms. I’m Bob Doughty. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/physical-exercise-lowers-risk-of-some-diseases-experts-say-124616594/115258.html Original Title: «How Much Exercise Do You Really Need?». New Title by: M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.


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« I was always looking outside myself for strength and

confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time».

— Anna Freud.




41. Time - One of the Great Mysteries of Our Universe.

HOST: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week our program is about a mystery as old as time. Bob Doughty and Sarah Long tell about the mystery of time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing.




For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe. VOICE TWO: One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes. VOICE ONE: In the real world -- the world with time -- changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness -- one day. VOICE TWO: People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun's highest position until it returned to that position. They counted three hundred sixty-five days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year. VOICE ONE: Early humans also noted changes in the moon. As it moved across the night sky, they must have wondered. Why did it look different every night? Why did it disappear? Where did it go? Even before they learned the answers to these questions, they developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time.




The moon was "full" when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same -- about twenty-nine suns. Twenty-nine suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes from place to place in search of food. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. They learned to use animals to help them work, and for food. They found they no longer needed to move from one place to another to survive. As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars. No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months. When people started farming, the wise men of the tribes became very important. They studied the sky. They gathered enough information so they could know when the seasons would change. They announced when it was time to plant crops. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia four thousand years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every three hundred sixty-five days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into twenty-four equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds. VOICE TWO: Humans have used many devices to measure time. The sundial was one of the earliest and simplest.




A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes. The sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, other ways were invented to measure the passing of time. VOICE ONE: One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight --- wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true "hour" glass, it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour. By the eighteenth century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic. VOICE TWO: So, we have devices to mark the passing of time. But what time is it now? Clocks in different parts of the world do not show the same time at the same time. This is because time on Earth is set by the sun's position in the sky above. We all have a twelve o'clock noon each day. Noon is the time the sun is highest in the sky. But when it is twelve o'clock noon where I am, it may be ten o'clock at night where you are. VOICE ONE: As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world. In eighteen eighty-four, an international conference divided the world into twenty-four time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east. The time at Greenwich -- as measured by the sun -- is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time.




VOICE TWO: Some scientists say time is governed by the movement of matter in our universe. They say time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Some say it will stop expanding some day and will begin to move in the opposite direction, to grow smaller. Some believe time will also begin to flow in the opposite direction -- from the future to the past. Can time move backward? Most people have no trouble agreeing that time moves forward. We see people born and then grow old. We remember the past, but we do not know the future. We know a film is moving forward if it shows a glass falling off a table and breaking into many pieces. If the film were moving backward, the pieces would re-join to form a glass and jump back up onto the table. No one has ever seen this happen. Except in a film. VOICE ONE: Some scientists believe there is one reason why time only moves forward. It is a well-known scientific law -- the second law of thermodynamics. That law says disorder increases with time. In fact, there are more conditions of disorder than of order. For example, there are many ways a glass can break into pieces. That is disorder. But there is only one way the broken pieces can be organized to make a glass. That is order. If time moved backward, the broken pieces could come together in a great many ways. Only one of these many ways, however, would re-form the glass. It is almost impossible to believe this would happen. VOICE TWO: Not all scientists believe time is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. They do not agree that time must always move forward. The debate will continue about the nature of time. And time will remain a mystery. (THEME) HOST: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and read by Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Science in the News, in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2009/12/29/0045/





42. Sexual and Reproductive Health Education.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report has been released about sexual and reproductive health education for young people around the world. Population Action International carried out the study. This not-for-profit organization is based in New York City. Researchers examined how seven countries dealt with the reproductive health needs of their young people. The countries are Mexico, Iran, India, Ghana, Mali, the Netherlands and the United States.




The study found that, except for the Netherlands, most countries are not doing enough to teach young people the information they need about reproductive health. For example, there are a growing number of reproductive health programs in Mali. Yet seventy percent of the nineteen-year-old women in Mali are pregnant or have a child. Twenty percent of the women are married by age fifteen. In Mexico, the government supports a program of sex education and family planning. However, teachers receive little or no training on the subject. Some do not teach the subject at all. Amy Coen is the head of Population Action International. She says the need for reproductive health policies around the world has never been greater. The group estimates that half of the world's population is younger than twenty-five. That is three-thousand-million young people. Within the next fifteen years, all of them will have reached reproductive age. Population Action International says that countries will suffer if they fail to provide boys and girls with the information they need to stay healthy and in school. It says young people need to know about sexuality, family planning and having babies. It says young people also should have the ability to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancies. In many countries, talking about sex and reproduction is considered wrong or against tradition. The group reports a strong resistance among parents, teachers and policy makers to discuss issues of sexuality with young people. It says this lack of openness is putting young people at risk. Young people have a high risk of diseases spread by sexual activity, including AIDS. Half of all new infections of the AIDS virus are among people younger than twenty-five. Population Action International says countries that avoid open communication about this subject harm their populations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2002/07/01/0041/





43. Nobel Prize in Economics Recognizes 'Market Designers'.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English. This year, the Nobel Prize for economics recognizes two Americans for their work. Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, made the announcement Monday. “The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2012 to Professor Alvin Roth at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA… And to Professor Lloyd S. Shapley at University of California Los Angeles.” Staffan Normark added the reason the two men won the prize. “For the theory of stable allocation and the practice of market design.”




The Nobel Prize in economics is often awarded for discoveries in how markets work or how market actors behave. But Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley thought of ways to design markets. Per Krusell of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained it this way. “This year’s prize in economic sciences is about economic engineering. It’s about how to practically design certain markets so that they work well.” Lloyd Shapley worked with David Gale on a research project in the 1960s. It dealt with how to match up ten men and ten women in strong, successful marriages. The two researchers developed an algorithm or mathematical formula. It provided a model suggesting a way that all those couples could be matched best. The algorithm did not do very much to solve anyone’s marriage issues. But it did suggest ways to understand some kinds of markets better. David Gale died a few years ago. Alvin Roth built on the work, although he and Lloyd Shapley did not work together. Mr. Roth recognized the value of the Gale-Shapley findings. And he applied it to real-life markets. These included markets where the normal supply and demand relationship does not work, and where payment is not used. These markets require matching market actors such as organ donors and recipients, or students with public schools. Mr. Roth’s work was also used to match new doctors with hospitals. The Royal Swedish Academy called the work of Mr. Roth and Mr. Shapley an outstanding example of economic engineering. Alvin Roth said market design is a new field and the prize may draw more attention to it. "You know, my colleagues and I work in an area that we're calling 'market design', which is sort of a newish area of economics and I'm sure that when I get to class this morning my students will pay more attention." Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley will share the prize, which is worth over one million dollars. And that’s the Economics Report in Special English. I’m Mario Ritter.




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44. The Beginning of The American War of Independence.

From VOA Learning English, this is THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in Special English. I’m Steve Ember. This week in our series, we look at the start of the American Revolution. The road to revolution in the late seventeen hundreds took several years. There were protests against the British policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament.




To prevent trouble, the British sent thousands of soldiers to Boston, the largest city in Massachusetts. Jayne Gordon, the director of education and public programs at the Massachusetts Historical Society, explains the mood at the time. “We’re looking at a time of great tension, we’re looking at a time when there’s an expectation, I think, on both sides that something will happen but nobody knows exactly what or when.” On March fifth, seventeen seventy, that tension led to violence. It was the end of winter but the weather was still very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. Five colonists were killed. The shooting became known as the Boston Massacre. The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers were tried in court for murder. Most of them were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament removed most of the taxes on the colonists. Only the tax on tea remained. The tensions eased for a while. Imports of British goods increased. The colonists seemed satisfied with the situation, until a few years later. Then the Massachusetts colony once again became involved in a dispute with Great Britain. The trouble started because the government wanted to help the British East India Company. That company organized all the trade between India and other countries in the British empire. By seventeen seventy-three, the company had become weak. The British government decided to let the company sell tea directly to the American colonies. The colonies would still have to pay a tea tax. The Americans did not like this new plan. They felt they were being forced to buy their tea from only one company.




Officials in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New York sent ships from the East India Company back to Britain. In Massachusetts, the British governor wanted to collect the tea tax and enforce the law. When the ships arrived in Boston, some colonists tried to block their way. The ships remained just outside the harbor without unloading their goods. On the night of December sixteenth, seventeen seventy-three, a group of colonists went out in a small boat. They got on a British ship and threw all the tea into the water. Destroying the tea was a serious crime. The colonists were dressed as American Indians so the British would not recognize them. But the people of Boston knew who they were. A crowd gathered to cheer them. That incident -- the night when British tea was thrown into Boston harbor -- became known as the Boston Tea Party. “And all of a sudden, with the Tea Party, they say enough is enough.” Gordon Wood, a history professor at Brown University in Rhode Island, says the Tea Party made Britain furious with the colonies. Parliament reacted by passing a series of laws that punished the whole Massachusetts colony for the actions of a few men. One of these laws closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Other laws strengthened the power of the British governor and weakened the power of local officials throughout the colonies. The laws were called the Coercive Acts. Historian Gordon Wood says they helped unite all the colonies against Britain, even though not everybody approved of the Boston Tea Party. “The Virginians are appalled at the Tea Party. They just think that’s just terrible, the destruction of all that property. But when they see what the British do, the Coercive Acts, they say to themselves, 'If they can do that to Massachusetts, the British can do that to us.' And they’re on board. And that really is the turning point.” In June of seventeen seventy-four, Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the other colonies to consider joint action against Britain. This meeting was called the First Continental Congress. It was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September of seventeen seventy-four. All the colonies except one were represented. The southern colony of Georgia did not send a delegate.




The delegates agreed that the British Parliament had no right to control trade with the American colonies or to make any laws that affected them. They said the people of the colonies must have the right to take part in any legislative group that made laws for them. The First Continental Congress approved a series of documents that condemned all British actions in the colonies after seventeen sixty-three. The delegates approved a proposal by Massachusetts saying that the people could use weapons to defend their rights. They also organized a Continental Association to boycott British goods and to stop all exports to any British colony or to Britain itself. Local committees were created to enforce the boycott. One of the delegates to the First Continental Congress was John Adams of Massachusetts. Years later, he would say that by the time the meeting took place, the American Revolution had already begun. King George the Second announced that the New England colonies were in rebellion. Parliament made the decision to use troops against the colonists in Massachusetts in January of seventeen seventy-five. The people of Massachusetts formed a provincial assembly and began training men to fight. Soon, armed groups were doing military exercises in towns all around Massachusetts and in other colonies. British officers received their orders in April seventeen seventy-five. By that time, the colonists had been gathering weapons in the town of Concord, about thirty kilometers west of Boston. “It’s a gentle landscape. There are no great mountains, there are no great valleys or waterfalls. It’s a gently rolling hillside, farm landscape. There are two rivers that come together to form another river. Jayne Gordon from the Massachusetts Historical Society lives in the area. She describes what the scene must have been like. “The houses are mostly made of wood. Many of them are not painted. In April the leaves would just be budding out, things would be greening up, and actually the first day of the revolution was a very warm spring day.” The British forces were ordered to seize the colonists’ weapons. But the colonists were prepared. They knew that the British were coming.




Years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about what happened. The poem is about Paul Revere, one of three men who helped warn the colonial troops that the British were coming: Listen my children and you shall hear

of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

On the eighteenth of April in seventy-five

hardly a man is now alive

who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend,

"If the British march by land or sea from the town tonight

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the North Church tower as a signal light.

One if by land

And two if by sea

And I on the opposite shore will be

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm

for the country folk to be up and to arm."))

When the British reached the town of Lexington, they found it protected by about seventy colonial troops. These citizen soldiers were called "Minute Men." They had been trained to fight with only a minute's warning. Eight colonists were killed. Each side accused the other of firing the first shot in that first battle of the American Revolution. It became known as "the shot heard 'round the world." From Lexington, the British marched to Concord, where they destroyed whatever supplies the colonists had not been able to save. Other colonial troops rushed to the area. A battle at Concord's north bridge forced the British to march back to Boston. It was the first day of America's war for independence. When it was over, almost three hundred British troops had been killed. Fewer than one hundred Americans had died.




The British troops had marched in time with their drummers and pipers playing "Yankee Doodle." A Yankee Doodle was a man who did not know how to fight. The song was meant to insult the Americans. But in the end they were proud of it. Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts colony organized a group that captured Fort Ticonderoga. This was a British position on Lake Champlain in New York. The other colonies began sending their own troops to help. And another meeting was called: the Second Continental Congress. That will be our story next week. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://www.21voa.com/VOA_Special_English/transcript-8114.html


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45. Great Thinkers: Charles Darwin and Evolution.

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to Explorations, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week, Barbara Klein and I tell about one of the most influential thinkers in science history. Charles Darwin developed the theory of how living things develop from simpler organisms over long periods of time. That theory is known as evolution through natural selection. (MUSIC) How do new kinds of life come into existence? For much of recorded history, people have believed that organisms were created. Few people believed that living things changed. What process could make such change possible? These were some of the questions Charles Darwin asked himself over years of research in botany, zoology and geology. He was not the first person to ask them. His own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, believed that species evolved.




And others, like the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamark, had proposed ways this could happen. But it was Darwin who identified and explained the process, natural selection, that causes life to evolve. BARBARA KLEIN: Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England on February twelfth, eighteen-oh-nine. His father Robert Darwin was a doctor. Charles' mother Susannah Darwin was the daughter of the famous potter, Josiah Wedgwood. She died when Charles was only eight years old. Young Charles was intensely interested in the natural world from an early age. But his father wanted him to be a doctor. At age sixteen, Charles was sent to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. But he did not like it. He found medical operations especially horrible. He later went to Cambridge University. His father now hoped that Darwin would become a clergyman. But at Cambridge, Charles continued to follow his own interests. There, he met John Henslow, a plant scientist and clergyman. The two became friends. STEVE EMBER: John Henslow suggested that Charles Darwin take the unpaid position of naturalist for a trip on the British ship H.M.S. Beagle. It sailed around the world from eighteen thirty-one to eighteen thirty-six. The main goal was to make maps of the coastline of South America. The British government paid for the voyage. But another purpose of the trip was to collect scientific objects from around the world. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: The Beagle’s first stop was one of the Cape Verde Islands near the coast of Africa. There, Darwin noted that levels of rock extending high above the sea contained the fossil remains of shells. He thought that this was evidence that the bottom of the ocean had been lifted up by powerful geological forces over long periods of time. The Beagle continued to the coast of South America. In Valdivia, Chile, Darwin experienced an earthquake. He collected examples of plants and animals. He also collected the fossil remains of animals that had disappeared from the Earth. But it was on the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador that Darwin found creatures that made him wonder about how species develop and change. There, he saw giant tortoises and noted that the reptiles were different on each island.




He collected birds, each with different beaks. Later, after he had returned to England, he would be shocked to find that these very different birds were all finches. Darwin found lizards called iguanas that lived on land and ones that fed in the sea. Darwin noted that all these species were similar to those found in South America. But, they all had differences, or adaptations, that helped them survive in the environment of the Galapagos Islands. STEVE EMBER: Darwin sent much of what he collected back to England on other ships the Beagle met along the way. By the time he returned to England in October of eighteen thirty-six, he was already a well known geologist and naturalist. Within a few years, he would be accepted into scientific organizations like the Geological Society and the Royal Society. Darwin moved to London to be near other scientists. He wrote a new version of the book about his travels. He also edited works of others about the things he had collected on his trip. Darwin also agreed to write several books including the "Zoology of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle." But in eighteen thirty-seven, the pressure of the work caused his health to suffer. He developed problems with his heart. BARBARA KLEIN: Charles Darwin had poor health much of his life. He suffered headaches and problems with his skin and stomach. No one was able to find out what disease he may have had during his lifetime. Recently, some experts have suggested that he might have become infected with a tropical disease. Others suggest Darwin’s health problems were caused by conflict in his mind over his theory. Poor health would later force him to leave London and settled at Down House near Kent, England. Darwin began work on a series of secret notebooks containing his thoughts about the evolutionary process. He began to think that animals developed from earlier, simpler organisms. As early as eighteen thirty-seven, he imagined this process as a tree with branches representing new species. Unsuccessful branches ended. But successful evolutionary changes continued to form new branches. STEVE EMBER: Charles Darwin’s personal life was also expanding. In eighteen thirty-nine, he married Emma Wedgwood, his cousin. He told her his ideas about how species evolve over time -- what he called the transmutation of species. Emma did not agree with her husband. But the two had a strong and happy marriage. They had ten children together. Seven of them survived. (MUSIC)




BARBARA KLEIN: Charles Darwin read widely and sought ideas from other fields of study. He was influenced by Thomas Malthus’ work, "An Essay on the Principle of Population" written in seventeen ninety-eight. Malthus argued that populations are always limited by the food supply. Darwin would later say that this work caused him to realize the struggle for limited resources was a fact of life. He said small changes took place in individual animals. Changes that helped them survive would continue. But those that did not would be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. The British philosopher Herbert Spencer described this struggle as "survival of the fittest." But biologists use the term “natural selection” to describe the evolutionary process. STEVE EMBER: Charles Darwin developed his idea slowly over more than twenty years. He was concerned that he would lose the support of the scientific community if he revealed it. He wrote to his friend, botanist Joseph Hooker, that speaking about evolution “was like confessing a murder.” It was not until eighteen fifty-eight that Darwin was forced to release his theory to the public. Another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had independently written a paper that contained ideas similar to Darwin's concerning evolution. Wallace had reached these ideas from his studies on islands in the western Pacific Ocean. With help from Darwin's friends, the two naturalists presented a joint scientific paper to the Linnean Society of London in July of eighteen fifty-eight. At first there was little reaction. Then, in November, eighteen fifty-nine, Darwin released the results of all his work on evolution. The book was called "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." It was an immediate success. BARBARA KLEIN: The "Origin of Species" was praised by many scientists. But religious leaders denounced it. For them, evolution opposed the explanation of creation found in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Today, almost all scientists accept the theory of evolution. But many non-scientists are unsure about whether humans evolved over millions of years. In the United States, public opinion studies have shown that less than half the population believes in evolution. STEVE EMBER: Natural selection does not explain everything about why species evolve. Darwin did not know about Gregor Mendel’s work on heredity. And the discovery of genetics and D.N.A. molecules took place long after his death. Yet, Darwin theorized in a world much different from the one we know. That is why scientists today wonder at the depth of his knowledge and the strength of his arguments.




Charles Darwin died on April nineteenth, eighteen eighty-two. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, in London, among other heroes of Britain. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/charles-darwin-and-evolution--133910793/116968.html


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46. Proverbs Tell How to Succeed in Life.

Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. Today we explain more popular proverbs. A proverb is a short, well known saying that expresses a common truth or belief. Proverbs are popular around the world. Many listeners have sent us their favorite proverbs. They give advice about how to live. We begin with two popular proverbs about staying healthy by eating good food: One is an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Another is you are what you eat. Several proverbs about birds also give advice. You may have heard this one: The early bird catches the worm. This means a person who gets up early, or acts quickly, has the best chance of success.




Another famous proverb is a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means you should not risk losing something you have by seeking something that is not guaranteed. Here is another piece of advice: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. In other words, you should not think too much about some future event before it really happens. Another proverb warns do not put all your eggs in one basket. This means you should not put all of your resources together in one place because you could risk losing everything at one time. Many Americans learned this the hard way by investing all their money in stock shares, which then lost value. Another proverb says a fool and his money are soon parted. This means someone who acts unwisely with money will lose it. Here is more advice: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Also, never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. You might learn that haste makes waste if you do something so fast, resulting in mistakes. Most people would agree with this proverb: honesty is the best policy. Yet another proverb advises us not to be concerned about something bad that you cannot change. It says there is no use crying over spilled milk. Do you agree with the proverb that children should be seen and not heard? Maybe you have told your children that hard work never hurt anyone. But other people say that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. They believe it is not wise to spend all your time working and never having fun. Finally, here is one of our favorite proverbs: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. This means you should not criticize other people unless you are perfect yourself. This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/proverbs-succeed-life/1673063.html


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47. The Complex Story of Abraham Lincoln and How He Saved the Union.

Statue of Abraham Lincoln in Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we remember President Abraham Lincoln. This Thursday is the two hundredth anniversary of his birth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Abraham Lincoln is the only president in American history to lead a nation divided by civil war.




At the heart of the issues that divided the South from the North was slavery. Southern states withdrew from the Union because they saw a threat to their way of life. Their agricultural economy depended on the labor of slaves originally brought from Africa. The states thought the federal government would free the slaves. South Carolina was the first to leave. It did so shortly after Lincoln's election in November of eighteen sixty. Six other states followed by the time he took office in March of eighteen sixty-one. In his inaugural speech, Lincoln begged southern states not to leave the Union. READER: We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln did not receive a majority of the popular vote in the eighteen sixty election. But he won enough electoral votes to become president. Lincoln fought to keep the Union together. He led a civil war in which more than six hundred thousand Americans were killed. And, in leading that war, he took the first steps that would destroy the institution of slavery. (MUSIC: "Battle Hymn of the Republic") VOICE ONE: Most whites did not consider blacks -- or negroes, as they called them -- to be their equal. Lincoln was no different. But he believed that slavery was wrong. Yet he thought that slavery would die out naturally over time -- and that outsiders should not force southerners to end slavery. He explained his position many times in speeches, debates and letters, including this one written in eighteen fifty-eight: READER: I have made it equally plain that I think the negro is included in the word "men" used in the Declaration of Independence. I believe the declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest; that negro slavery is violative of that principle; but that, by our frame of government, that principle has not been made one of legal obligation; that by our frame of government, the states which have slavery are to retain it, or surrender it at their own pleasure; and that all others — individuals, free states and national government — are constitutionally bound to leave them alone about it.




VOICE TWO: But Lincoln changed his mind. Some historians think the death of his eleven-year-old son Willie had an influence. The president and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, had four children, all sons. Three got sick and died. Only one lived past the age of eighteen. Tom Schwartz is the Illinois state historian and an expert on Abraham Lincoln. He says the president began to think seriously about the meaning of life after Willie died in eighteen sixty-two. Lincoln never joined a church, but he believed in a supreme being who created every person with a purpose in life. After his son's death, Lincoln decided that one of his purposes was to be an emancipator -- to begin the process of freeing the slaves. A few months later, he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: Many people think the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves. It did not. It only declared slaves in the Confederacy to be free. In other words, only slaves in the southern states that did not recognize Lincoln as president. Lincoln read the first draft of the document to his cabinet in July of eighteen sixty-two, five months after Willie's death. A new stage play has been written about those five months in Lincoln's life. "The Heavens Are Hung In Black" by James Still is the first play being presented in the newly redecorated Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. That is the same theater where President Lincoln was shot in eighteen sixty-five. VOICE TWO: Historians say that by writing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln established a moral purpose for the war. No longer was the purpose simply to bring the southern states back into the Union. Now his declaration made freeing the slaves a long-term goal of the conflict. It put the Confederate states in the position of fighting for slavery -- even though most of the soldiers were too poor to own slaves. And it increased the military strength of the Union by making it possible for free blacks to serve in the northern army. VOICE ONE: Political opponents and the press criticized actions taken by President Lincoln.




The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees free speech and a free press. Yet Lincoln briefly closed some newspapers. Another action that he took was to suspend the right of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a legal term for the right to have a judge decide if a person is being detained lawfully. The request is made to the court in a written document called a writ. The Constitution, in setting limits on Congress, says in Article One: "The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." VOICE TWO: Suspending habeas corpus means that a prisoner can be held without trial for as long as the government wants. Abraham Lincoln or his cabinet officers suspended that right several times. They believed they were acting within the Constitution. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln knew that he would be criticized for issuing such orders without waiting for congressional approval. Yet he himself was not sure what powers he had in many situations. American history could offer no guide. After all, the country had never before had a civil war. Lincoln made his orders temporary. And he made sure the country held its next presidential election as planned in eighteen sixty-four, when he was re-elected. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was born into a poor family in Kentucky. He grew up in Indiana and later moved to Illinois. He loved to learn. He was a self-taught lawyer who served for eight years as an Illinois state representative. But he also suffered from depression all his life. Doctors at that time called it melancholia. He wrote letters about killing himself and saying that he was the "most miserable man alive." Lincoln was a tall man with a long face, long arms and large hands. Political opponents called him names like "gorilla." Many said he was unqualified to be president because of his limited experience in national government. Lincoln had served only two years in Congress before his election to the White House.




VOICE ONE: Yet Abraham Lincoln is often called America's greatest president. He is remembered as the man who saved the Union and re-invented it at the same time. By including blacks, Lincoln expanded "the borders of freedom," says historian Tom Schwartz. Lincoln himself said his purpose was to provide "an open field and a fair chance in life." He succeeded in beginning that process, though black Americans did not gain full civil rights until the nineteen sixties. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was the first presidential candidate of the modern Republican Party. He included political opponents in his cabinet, which is unusual. Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about this in her two thousand five book "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." But some historians suggest that the inclusion of opponents may not have been as smart an idea as Lincoln had hoped. In fact, they say that in some cases it may have created more problems than it solved. VOICE ONE: But Lincoln was the leading force behind the Thirteenth Amendment which officially ended slavery in the United States. It became law in December of eighteen sixty-five. By then, Lincoln was dead. On April fourteenth, eighty sixty-five, Southern sympathizer and actor John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in Ford's Theatre. It happened five days after the South surrendered and the Civil War ended. VOICE TWO: Not surprisingly, America's sixteenth president is a hero of another former Illinois lawmaker. Barack Obama has spoken repeatedly of Lincoln's influence in making it possible for the country to have its first African-American president. President Obama will return to Illinois to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's two hundredth birthday at a big dinner in Springfield this Thursday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.




VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Doug Johnson was our reader. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher or from my Personal Page. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/a-23-2009-02-07-voa5-83140772/129577.html





48. Proverbs Tell About Love, War and Money.

Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. Today we talk about proverbs. A proverb is a short, well known saying that expresses a common truth or belief. Proverbs are found in most cultures and are often very old. In American history, Benjamin Franklin was famous for his proverbs. Franklin lived in the 1700s. He was a leader of the American Revolution against English rule. He was also a scientist, inventor and writer. For many years, Franklin published a book called "Poor Richard's Almanac." He included many proverbs that he had heard or created. Some of them are still used today. Like this one: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Franklin is also remembered for other proverbs like, "A penny saved is a penny earned." This means that money should not be wasted.




Here are other examples of proverbs that Americans use. The first ones are about love. Some people say, "All is fair in love and war." They mean that anything you do in a relationship or in battle is acceptable. Another proverb about love is, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." This means you love someone even more when he or she is far away. But other people say, "Out of sight, out of mind." You may not even think about that person when he or she is not with you. Which of these proverbs do you think is most true? Another proverb says "Love is blind." In other words, when you are in love with someone, you may refuse to see anything bad about that person. Here is another popular saying about love: "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Some people believe that a woman can win a man's love if she prepares his favorite foods. Some people are only interested in having a relationship with someone who is very good-looking. You might tell them that "Beauty is only skin deep." Your girlfriend may be lovely to look at, but she may also have some bad qualities. Or the opposite may be true. Your boyfriend is a wonderful person, but not good-looking. So what a person looks like is not really important. Another proverb is true in love and war or other situations: "Actions speak louder than words." It means that what you do is more important than what you say. Sadly, we have no more time for this program. So we must say, "All good things must come to an end." This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Barbara Klein. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/proverbs-love-war-money/1662964.html


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49. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) – He Changed the Way We Understand the Universe.

This is Steve Ember. And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a scientist who changed the way we understand the universe, Albert Einstein. In the year 1905, Albert Einstein published some important papers in a German scientific magazine. They included one of the most important scientific documents in history. It was filled with mathematics. It explained what came to be called his "Special Theory of Relativity." Ten years later he expanded it to a "General Theory of Relativity." Albert Einstein's theories of relativity are about the basic ideas we use to describe natural happenings. They are about time, space, mass, movement, and gravity.




Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879. His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the religion's rules. Albert was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction -- to the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things. Albert did not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison. One story says Albert told his Uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. "You are looking for someone," he said, "but you do not know who. Call him X. Find him by using the mathematical tools of algebra and geometry." Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus when all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with friends he thought about things such as: "What would happen if people could travel at the speed of light?" Albert decided that he wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He attended the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated with honors, but could not get a teaching job. So he began working for the Swiss government as an inspector of patents for new inventions. The job was not demanding. He had a lot of time to think about some of his scientific theories. From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called "thought experiments" to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By 1905, he had formed his ideas into theories that he published. In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons. This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory.




Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter. The most important of Albert Einstein's theories published that year became known as his "Special Theory of Relativity." He said the speed of light is always the same -- almost three hundred thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change. And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in relation to an object or an event. Imagine two space vehicles with a scientist travelling in each one. One spaceship is red. One is blue. Except for color, both spaceships are exactly alike. They pass one another far out in space. Neither scientist feels that his ship is moving. To each, it seems that the other ship is moving, not his. As they pass at high speed, the scientist in each ship measures how long it takes a beam of light to travel from the floor to the top of his spaceship, hit a mirror and return to the floor. Each spaceship has a window that lets each scientist see the experiment of the other. They begin their experiments at exactly the same moment. The scientist in the blue ship sees his beam of light go straight up and come straight down. But he sees that the light beam in the red ship does not do this. The red ship is moving so fast that the beam does not appear to go straight up. It forms a path up and down that looks like an upside down "V". The scientist in the red ship would see exactly the same thing as he watched the experiment by the other scientist. He could say that time passed more slowly in the other ship. Each scientist would be correct, because the passing of time is linked to the position of the observer. Each scientist also would see that the other spaceship was shorter than his own. The higher the speeds the spaceships were travelling, the shorter the other ship would appear. And although the other ship would seem shorter, its mass would increase. It would seem to get heavier. The ideas were difficult to accept. Yet other scientists did experiments to prove that Einstein's theory was correct. Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work on another theory. It described what he called his "General Theory of Relativity." It expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed. This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in 1905.




Einstein said that an object loses mass when it gives off light, which is a kind of energy. He believed that matter and energy were different forms of the same thing. That was the basis of his famous mathematical statement E equals m-c squared (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). This statement or formula explained that a great amount of energy could come from a small piece of matter. It explained how the sun could give off heat and light for millions of years. This formula also led to the discovery of atomic energy. In his general theory of relativity, Einstein said that gravity, like time, is not always the same. Gravity changes as observers speed up or slow down. He also said that gravity from very large objects, such as stars, could turn the path of light waves that passed nearby. This seemed unbelievable. But in 1919, British scientists confirmed his theory when the sun was completely blocked during a solar eclipse. Albert Einstein immediately became famous around the world. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. This scientific law explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces. The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and television. Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933. He moved to the United States to continue his research. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein became a citizen of the United States in 1940. Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand. Albert Einstein opposed wars. Yet he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 to advise him that the United States should develop an atomic bomb before Germany did. Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life working on what he called a "unified field theory." He hoped to find a common mathematical statement that could tie together all the different parts of physics. He did not succeed. Albert Einstein died in 1955. He was seventy-six years old. This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long.




And this is Steve Ember. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Albert_Einstein.html


http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Albert_Einstein.html



50. ‘The World Bank’ About Importance of the English Language.

Because universities are international institutions, with an openness to faculty and student flows

and to borderless knowledge creation and dissemination, the language of science and scholarship

is of central importance.

For teaching and publishing, the earliest European universities used a common language—Latin.

Even at that time, the universities saw themselves as international institutions, serving students

from throughout Europe and often hiring professors from a variety of countries. Knowledge

circulated through the medium of Latin. Two key tasks in those early years were translating books

from Arabic and Greek into Latin and introducing this knowledge to Europe.




Later, as a result of the Protestant Reformation, national languages began to dominate

universities in their home countries, and the universities became national, rather than

international, institutions.

French was a central language of scholarship during the Age of Enlightenment and the Napoleonic

Era. German became a key scientific language with the rise of the research university in the 19th

century, and many of the new scientific journals were published in German.

Following World War II, English slowly gained influence as the major language of scientific

communication with the rise of the U.S. research university and the expansion of university

systems in (a) English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United

Kingdom; and (b) former British colonies including India and Pakistan in South Asia and Ghana,

Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe in Africa. In Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore emerged

as academic powerhouses that used English in their universities.

By the beginning of the 21st century, English had emerged as the nearly universal medium of

scientific communication (Lillis and Curry 2010).

Today, universities in non-English-speaking countries are to varying degrees using English as a

language of instruction in certain fields. For example, in many Arabic-speaking countries, as well

as in China and Korea, English is used as the language of instruction in scientific areas and in

professional fields such as business administration. In Malaysia, which previously had emphasized

the use of Bahasa Malaysia as the language of instruction, English has returned as a major

teaching language. On the European continent, English is used for teaching in fields deemed most

globally relevant and mobile, such as business and engineering.




Most influential academic journals and scientific websites are published in English, and

universities in many parts of the world encourage or even demand that their professors publish

in English-medium journals as evidence of quality scholarship. Many arguments exist concerning

the advisability of this emphasis on the use of English for communication and academic

advancement.

Yet, in fact, English is now the global language of science and scholarship and is likely to remain

dominant for the foreseeable future. Some analysts (Lillis and Curry 2010) have pointed out that

academics worldwide are forced to use the methodologies and paradigms of the main English-

medium journals, which reflect the values of the editors and boards in the United Kingdom, the

United States, and other metropolitan countries.

For authors whose first language is not English, acceptance of their work by these influential

publications is notably more difficult. The top-ranking journals are increasingly selective,

accepting only 5 to 10 percent of submissions, as universities worldwide demand that their

scholars and scientists publish in these journals.

The influence of English on research, teaching, and scholarship in the 21st century is one of the

realities of research universities worldwide, as illustrated by several case studies presented in this

book. In some ways, English is also the language of academic neocolonialism in the sense that

scholars everywhere are under pressure to conform to the norms and values of the metropolitan

academic systems that use English.

END.




From the document: «The Road to Academic Excellence - The Making of World-Class

Research Universities».

Human Development - THE WORLD BANK.

Authors (Editors): Philip G. Altbach and Jamil Salmi.

Original title of theme: «The Language of Science and Scholarship».

New Title by: M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

Observation: This document doesn't have mp3.





«The English language is a work in progress. Have fun with it».

— Jonathan Culver.




51. American History: English Settlers Establish Colonies In the New World.

English Settlers. STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. Last week in our series, we talked about the voyages to the New World by Christoper Columbus and other explorers sailing for Spain and Portugal. Today, we tell the story of the first permanent English settlements in North America. (MUSIC) England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World. Queen Elizabeth the First supported explorations as early as the fifteen seventies.




Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts, but he did not establish any lasting settlement. He died as he was returning to England. Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, continued the work. Raleigh sent a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America. He named the land Virginia in honor of Queen Elizabeth, who never married and was known as "the Virgin Queen." (MUSIC) In fifteen eighty-five, about one hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast of the present-day state of North Carolina. These settlers returned to England a year later. Another group went to Roanoke the next year. This group included a number of women and children. But the supply ships that Raleigh sent to the colony failed to arrive. When help got there in fifteen-ninety, none of the settlers could be found. At least some of the settlers may have become part of the Indian tribe that lived in the area. (MUSIC) One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack of the Spanish Navy against England in fifteen eighty-eight. King Phillip of Spain had decided to invade England. But the small English ships combined with a fierce storm defeated the huge Spanish fleet. As a result, Spain was no longer able to block English exploration. England discovered that supporting colonies so far away cost a lot of money. So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do it. Not until after her death in sixteen three did England begin serious efforts to start colonies in America. (MUSIC) In sixteen six, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groups permission to establish colonies in Virginia, the area claimed by England. Companies were organized to carry out the move. The London Company sent one hundred settlers to Virginia in sixteen six. The group landed there in May, sixteen seven and founded Jamestown. It was the first permanent English colony in the new world. The colony seemed about to fail from the start. The settlers did not plant their crops in time so they soon had no food. Their leaders lacked the farming and building skills needed to survive on the land. More than half the settlers died during the first winter.




(MUSIC) The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing about living in such a wild place. They wanted the settlers to search for gold, and explore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East. One settler knew this was wrong. His name was Captain John Smith. He helped the colonists build houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians. Still, the Jamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, starvation and Indian attacks. The London Company sent six thousand settlers to Virginia between sixteen six and sixteen twenty-two. More than four thousand died during that time. Historians say that all the settlers surely would have died without the help of the local Powhatan Indians. The Indians gave the settlers food. They taught them how to live in the forest. And the Powhatan Indians showed the settlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building. The settlers accepted the Indians' help. Then, however, the settlers took whatever else they wanted by force. In sixteen twenty-two, the local Indians attacked the settlers for interfering with Indian land. Three hundred forty settlers died. The colonists answered the attack by destroying the native tribes living along Virginia's coast. (MUSIC) The settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by sixteen twenty-four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop: tobacco. The other early English settlements in North America were much to the north, in what is today the state of Massachusetts. The people who settled there left England for reasons different from those who settled in Jamestown. The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money for English businesses. The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religious freedom. (MUSIC) King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman Catholic Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant faith in England. It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, however, was similar to the Roman Catholic Church.




Not all Protestants liked this idea. Some wanted to leave the Anglican Church and form religious groups of their own. In sixteen six, members of one group in the town of Scrooby did separate from the Anglican Church. About one hundred twenty-five people left England for Holland. They found problems there too, so they decided to move again -- to the New World. These people were called pilgrims. Pilgrams are people who travel for religious reasons. About thirty-five pilgrims were among the one hundred and two passengers and crew on a ship called the Mayflower in sixteen twenty. The Mayflower set sail from England, headed for Virginia. But the ship never reached Virginia. It was blown far off its planned course. Instead, it reached land far to the north, on Cape Cod Bay. The group decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown, far to the south in Virginia. (MUSIC) They settled what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, They called the colony Plymouth, naming it after the harbor in England, from which they departed on their voyage to the New World. The pilgrims and the others aboard the Mayflower believed they were not under English control since they did not land in Virginia. They saw the need for rules that would help them live together peacefully. They wrote a plan of government, which they called the Mayflower Compact. It was the first such plan ever developed in the New World. They elected William Bradford as the first governor of the Plymouth Colony. We know about the first thirty years of the colony as William Bradford described it in his book, "Of Plymouth Plantation." It is also sometimes referred to as “William Bradford’s Journal.” It actually tells the story of the Pilgrims from sixteen-eight, when they settled in the Netherlands through the Mayflower voyage, until the year sixteen forty-seven. It ends with a list, written in sixteen fifty, of Mayflower passengers and what happened to them. (MUSIC) As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth died during the first winter. The survivors were surprised to find an Indian who spoke English. His name was Squanto. He had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and had lived in England before returning to his people.




The Pilgrims believed God had sent them Squanto. He made it possible for them to communicate with the native people. He showed them the best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them. He provided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive. The settlers invited the Indians to a feast in the month of November to celebrate their successes and to thank Squanto for his help. Americans remember this feast when they celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving Day in November. (MUSIC) Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England. One large group was the Puritans. Like the pilgrims, the Puritans disagreed with the Anglican Church. But they did not want to leave the church. The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy in their view. Their desire for this change made them unwelcome in England. The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in sixteen thirty. By the end of that summer, one thousand Puritans had landed in the Northeast. Charles, the new English King, had given permission for them to settle in the Massachusetts Bay area. The Puritans began leaving England in large groups. Between sixteen thirty and sixteen forty, twenty thousand sailed for New England. They risked their lives on the dangerous trip. They wanted to live among people who believed as they did. The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people already living in the New World. They were the native Americans, or Indians, as Columbus called them, after thinking he had reached the East. That will be our story next week. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/jamestown-raleigh-powhatan-pilgrims/1511366.html






52. The Joys of Spelling.

Spelling in English is so complicated that there are even special competitions known as ‘spelling bees’. This would be inconceivable in more phonetic languages. We recently attended the 46th Annual Daily News York City Spelling Bee. 107 schoolchildren participated and the two winners had the chance to go to Washington, DC for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Here we listen to part of the contest. A moderator announces a word and a contestant has to spell it correctly. If he or she makes a mistake, a bell rings and a second moderator gives the correct spelling:




Moderator: Fennel. Contestant: Could you repeat the word, please? Moderator: Fennel. Contestant: Could you use it in a sentence? Moderator: “Selene often flavors her vegetables with curry powder and fennel.” Contestant: Could I have the definition? Moderator: “A perennial European herb not native to North America, and cultivated for the aromatic flavor of its seeds.” Fennel. Contestant: F-E-N-A-L? Second Moderator: F-E-N-N-E-L. Moderator: Seltzer. Contestant: Uhm… definition, please? Moderator: “A beverage consisting of water highly charged with carbon dioxide that is effervescent when not under pressure.” Seltzer. Contestant: S-E-L-T-Z-E-R. Moderator: Kabuki. Contestant: Uhm… definition, please? Moderator: “Traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner.” Kabuki. Contestant: Language of origin, please? Moderator: Japanese. Contestant: K-A-B-U-K-E. Kabuke. Second Moderator: K-A-B-U-K-I. Moderator: Chintz. And this has a… near homonym. It’s a firm, usually glazed, cotton fabric of plain weave, commonly with colorful printed design generally and not fewer than five colors, used for clothing and interior decoration.” Chintz. Contestant: Chintz? C-H-I-N-T-Z. Moderator: Junta. Now this also has a homonym and it is “a closely knit group of persons composing or dominating a government, especially after a revolutionary seize of power.” Junta. Contestant: Can you repeat the.. Oh! Hunter? H-U-N-T-E-R? Second Moderator: J-U-N-T-A.




Moderator: Argentine. Contestant: Argentine? Moderator: Argentine. Contestant: Can you use it in a sentence, please? Moderator: “The Argentine and his partner showed the dance class how the tango should be performed.” Contestant: Argentine: A-R-G-E-N-T-I-N-E. Moderator: Boudoir. Contestant: Could you repeat the word? Moderator: Boudoir. Contestant: Language of origin? Moderator: French. Contestant: B-U-D-D-W-A. Second Moderator: B-O-U-D-O-I-R. AND THE WINNER IS … We then interviewed one of the contest’s winners. Arvind Mahankali, a 10-year-old boy of Indian origin, is a 5th grader at the Forest Hills Montessori School in Queens. We asked him how he had prepared for the spelling bee: Arvind Mahankali: [Standard American accent]: I prepared for the spelling bee by studying the… Webster’s Dictionary and I was selected because I won the class spelling bee in my school. And did his family help him prepare during the bee? Arvind Mahankali: Yes, my parents helped me a lot. They were preparing me with some list (sic) of words because today there wasn’t enough time to study the dictionary. And what was the most difficult word for him in the bee? Arvind Mahankali: Cappelletti. C-A-P-P-E-L-L-E-T-T-I. It’s pasta stuffed with something like cheese or vegetables or something; mostly cheese.

Obtain the audio (mp3) from my Personal Page: https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/





53. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974): Made the First Solo Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean.

Charles Lindbergh. EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh. Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy.




Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February fourth, nineteen-oh-two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D.C. while Mr. Lindbergh served in the Congress. Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle. He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five hundred dollars to buy his own plane. Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing." He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier. From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class. After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago. Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy." In nineteen nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five thousand dollars. A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane.




A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it the Spirit of Saint Louis. In May, nineteen twenty-seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes. At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two. "If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either." May twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of the Spirit of Saint Louis. "It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go." The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, the Spirit of Saint Louis flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris. Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left. During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel. On the evening of May twenty-first, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris. Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and the Spirit of Saint Louis were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people. From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors.




Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations. He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in nineteen twenty-nine. Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed. On a stormy night in nineteen thirty-two, kidnappers took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in nineteen thirty-nine. Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace. President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany. Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero. Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war. Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights. Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest.




While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment. Charles Lindbergh died in nineteen seventy-four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed. Today, the Spirit of Saint Louis -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight. This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Charles_Lindbergh.html


http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Charles_Lindbergh.html



54. A brief Encounter with the French Language.

The Flag of France.

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

A listener from Venezuela sent us a question about the meaning of the expression mayday. He wrote that he often hears this expression in movies.

Mayday is an emergency code word. It is used around the world in voice communications. You might see a war movie in which an airplane has been hit by rocket fire. The pilot gets on his radio and calls “mayday, mayday, mayday” to tell that his plane is in danger of crashing to the ground.

Mayday has nothing to do with the month of May. It comes from the French expressions “venez m’aider,” or “m’aidez,” which mean “help me.”




Frederick Stanley Mockford created the mayday call signal in the nineteen twenties. Mockford was a radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. He was asked to think of a word that could be used in an emergency. The word had to be easily understood by all pilots and airport workers. Much of the air traffic at that time was between Croydon Airport and Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France. So he proposed the word mayday.

Today, many groups use the word to mean a life-threatening emergency. The call is always given three times to prevent mistaking it for some similar sounding words.

Many other French words are commonly used in English. One of these words is even in the Special English Word Book. It is sabotage. It means to damage or destroy as an act of subversion against an organization or nation.

You may have heard the term laissez-faire to describe a kind of economic or political policy. It means to leave alone and not interfere. It was first used in France in the eighteenth century.

In the business world, entrepreneur is another French word. It means a person who starts and operates a new business and has responsibility for any risks involved.

Many French words are used in the arts. For example, a film noir is a movie about murder and other crimes. These films were popular in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. Anything in art, music or literature which is very modern or ahead of its time is called avant-garde.

If you are looking for a job, you must prepare your résumé. This document lists all of your education, skills and experience. Something that is one of a kind and like no other thing is called unique.

The French are famous for their food. All cooks need to know how to sauté. This is frying something quickly in a small amount of oil or butter. When you are eating at a restaurant, the server may tell you bon appétit, which means good appetite, or enjoy your meal. And if you go away, someone may wish you bon voyage or have a good trip.

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Shelley Gollust.

I'm Faith Lapidus.

You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.




Original Title: «Words and Their Stories- Mayday».

New Title by: M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher.

http://www1.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/words-stories/Words-and-Their-Stories-Mayday-is-a-Call-for-Help-91234564.html






55. Are People Who Speak More Than One Language Smarter?

This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the sixties found the opposite. Bilingual people scored higher than monolinguals, people who speak only one language. So which is it? Researchers presented their newest studies last month at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystok says it probably does make you better at certain skills. ELLEN BIALYSTOK: "Imagine driving down the highway. There’s many things that could capture your attention and you really need to be able to monitor all of them. Why would bilingualism make you any better at that?"




And the answer, she says, is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention -- a function called the executive control system. ELLEN BIALYSTOK: "It’s quite possibly the most important cognitive system we have because it's where all of your decisions about what to attend to, what to ignore, what to process are made." Ms. Bialystok is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different colors. The person has to ignore the word but say the color. The problem is that the words are all names of colors. ELLEN BIALYSTOK: "So you would have the word blue written in red, but you have to say red. But blue is so salient, it's just lighting up all these circuits in your brain, and you really want to say blue. So you need a mechanism to override that so that you can say red. That’s the executive control system." Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to suppress one to be able to speak in the other. This mental exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are better able to separate a word from its meaning, and more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Foreign language study has increased in the United States. But linguist Alison Mackey at Georgetown University points out that English-speaking countries are still far behind the rest of the world. ALISON MACKEY: "In England, like in the United States, bilingualism is seen as something special and unique and something to be commented on and perhaps work towards, whereas in many other parts of the world being bilingual is just seen as a natural part of life." And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Kelly Nuxoll. Tell us about your experience learning languages. Go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/health/Are-People-Who-Speak-More-Than-One-Language-Smarter-117617108.html


http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/health/Are-People-Who-Speak-More-Than-One-Language-Smarter-117617108.html

http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/health/Are-People-Who-Speak-More-Than-One-Language-Smarter-117617108.html



Boost Your Brain – Learn a Language.

Studies conducted by Ellen Bialystock at York University in Toronto revealed that bilingual

speakers perform better on many cognitive tasks. The reason, Bialystock suggests, is that people

who speak two languages engage their brain’s executive control function every time they speak

or hear either language. Our executive control system is what helps our brain focus on what’s

important and filter out what is not. In bilinguals, the executive control system is what allows

them to distinguish between the two languages and keep them separate. Bialystock’s research,

along with earlier research by Dr. Yakov Stern, also showed that bilingual older adults who had

dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease displayed symptoms four to five years later than their

monolingual counterparts. This delay in symptoms is due to the strengthening of cognitive

reserve. Cognitive reserve is our brain’s overall ability to withstand disease and decline. It is

protection or a buffer that is created by active engagement in stimulating intellectual, social and

physical activities (Stern, 2002).

So, if you don’t already speak two languages, is it too late? Learning a new language is one of the

most optimal activities for exercising the brain and building your cognitive reserve. Learning a

new language works the left hemisphere of the brain, however, speaking and communicating in

that language works both hemispheres. So if you want to try one of the number one workouts for

your brain, launch yourself into a new language.

Source: http://www.marblesthebrainstore.com/blog/2011/04/29/boost-your-brain-learn-a-language/


http://www.marblesthebrainstore.com/blog/2011/04/29/boost-your-brain-learn-a-language/



56. Henry Loomis: Director of VOA Had Idea to Create Special English.

Henry Loomis. I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Bob Doughty with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the research scientist and broadcasting leader Henry Loomis. Mr. Loomis held many interesting communications positions over his long career. He served as director of the Voice of America for seven years starting in nineteen fifty-eight. Mr. Loomis played an important role in creating the Special English service.




Henry Loomis was born in nineteen nineteen in Tuxedo Park, New York. His father was Alfred Lee Loomis, a wealthy New York City businessman. Unlike many businessmen at the time, Alfred Loomis protected his wealth during the financial crash of nineteen twenty-nine. He later withdrew from the world of business in order to spend more time working as a scientist. Henry Loomis and his brothers Lee and Farney grew up spending time in the private laboratory their father built. This scientific background and the people who worked with his father would have a big influence on Henry's life. Alfred Loomis taught traditional values to his sons and stressed the importance of education and hard work. Alfred Loomis invited the top scientists in the world to his Loomis Laboratory, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and Niels Bohr. Alfred Loomis and members of his lab team made important discoveries and inventions. They studied many subjects, including the measurement of time, or chronometry, and electroencephalography, or the measurement of electrical activity produced by the brain. Henry Loomis even took part in his father's experiments on measuring brain activity. In an interview six years ago, Henry Loomis remembered an experiment he took part in when he was about seventeen years old. Henry slept in a sound-proof room with electrode devices attached to his head. Alfred Loomis was nearby with a microphone device. He told his son in a soft voice that Henry's favorite object, his boat, was on fire. Henry Loomis jumped out of bed to save the boat. This experiment and others helped Alfred Loomis show how emotional upset could change human brain waves. Alfred Loomis later helped open the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Laboratory. His work helping to develop the new technology of radar would be used by the United States and Britain to defeat Germany during World War Two. Henry Stimson was related to the Loomis family. He was also an advisor and close friend. Among other positions, Mr. Stimson had served as secretary of state under President Herbert Hoover. He told Henry Loomis that he and his brothers were very lucky in life and that they should serve their country as a way to give thanks. Henry Loomis took these words very seriously. In nineteen forty, Henry Loomis dropped out of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to join the United States Navy. He was able to put to good use his knowledge of radar technology that he had learned about because of his father's work. After graduating at the top in his naval training class, Henry Loomis became a teacher at the Navy's radar training school in Hawaii. In December of nineteen forty-one, Japan bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This event marked the United States' official entry in World War Two.




By the end of the war, Henry Loomis had received many honors for his service, including a Bronze Star and an Air Medal. He left the Navy in nineteen forty-six to begin graduate studies. That year, he married his first wife, Mary Paul MacLeod. Mr. Loomis studied physics at the University of California at Berkeley. He worked as an assistant to Ernest Lawrence, the director of the university's radiation laboratory. Mr. Lawrence had won the Nobel Prize in nineteen thirty-nine for his work in nuclear physics. Henry Loomis later moved to Washington, D.C. to begin another stage of his career in public service. He held positions in the Department of Defense and other agencies. Mr. Loomis also directed the Office of Intelligence and Research at the United States Information Agency. In nineteen fifty-eight, he became director of the Voice of America under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his travels around the world, Mr. Loomis saw that English was becoming an important international language. He believed that it was important to make English easier to understand by listeners of VOA broadcasts whose native language was not English. So Mr. Loomis asked VOA program manager Barry Zorthian to develop a way to broadcast to listeners with a limited knowledge of English. The result of this effort was Special English. The first Voice of America broadcast in Special English took place on October nineteenth, nineteen fifty-nine. Critics at the time said the Special English method of broadcasting at a slower rate with a limited vocabulary would never work. American embassies demanded that the program be cancelled. But Mr. Loomis supported the program. Soon, VOA began to receive hundreds of letters from listeners praising the program. Special English programs became some of the most popular on VOA. We are pleased to say that our programs still are. Henry Loomis made other important improvements at VOA. He expanded VOA's broadcasting ability by setting up transmitter devices in countries including Liberia and the Philippines. He also decided that VOA needed a charter document to make its goals and rules clear. Such a charter would also officially state VOA's independence from other government programs. The charter states that VOA has to win the attention and respect of its listeners. It lists VOA's goals: to produce correct, balanced and expansive broadcasts. And to show the many sides of America's society, thoughts and organizations. President Eisenhower approved the charter before he left office. It was later signed into law by President Ford in nineteen seventy-six.




Henry Loomis compared the VOA charter to the United States Constitution. He said he believed the charter represented the realities of the world and the moral code of the country. Henry Loomis resigned from VOA in nineteen sixty-five over disagreements with the government about how to report on America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Mr. Loomis believed VOA should report about the war honestly, without censorship from the Administration of President Lyndon Johnson. He gave a farewell speech at VOA headquarters in which he talked about his time working here. HENRY LOOMIS: "How has the Voice changed in these seven years? In my judgment, the most important changes are the codification of the mission of VOA in our charter…" Mr. Loomis also talked about program changes he helped make. HENRY LOOMIS: "English broadcasts have been tripled and diversified. A new language, Special English, has been created to reach those with limited knowledge of, and a desire to learn, the language." Henry Loomis said that he believed VOA serves the world poorly if it is asked to change its news and programs to serve government policy interests. HENRY LOOMIS: "I believe VOA serves the national interest well if it reflects responsibly, affirmatively and without self-consciousness that ours is a society of free men who practice what they preach. To do this effectively, we must do it at all times. Freedom is not a part-time thing." Mr. Loomis talked about government control of the press for political reasons. HENRY LOOMIS: "To sweep under the rug what we don't like, what does not serve our tactical purpose, is a sign of weakness." But he said that to recognize forces and opinions that disagree with government policies is a sign of strength. At the end of his speech, Mr. Loomis said goodbye to VOA workers. HENRY LOOMIS: "It has been a privilege to have served with you, to have learned from you, to have had fun with you." In nineteen seventy-two, Henry Loomis became president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This organization was created by Congress to provide money for public television stations. Around this time he married his second wife, Jacqueline Chalmers. Mr. Loomis later retired to private life. He remained active in his favorite sports -- sailing and hunting.




Henry Loomis died in two thousand eight in Jacksonville, Florida. He was eighty-nine years old. He had a life-long career of valuable service in science and communications. And we honor him with a special thank you for helping to make this and other Special English programs possible. This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Bob Doughty. And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can learn more about famous Americans on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Henry_Loomis.html


http://www.manythings.org/voa/people/Henry_Loomis.html



57. American History - A Declaration Seeking Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Thomas Jefferson.




From VOA Learning English, this is THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series, we continue the story of the American Revolution. The year was seventeen seventy-five. Colonists in Massachusetts had fought battles with British troops in the towns of Lexington and Concord. War had not been declared. But citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight. Who was going to organize the colonists into an army? This was the first question that faced the Second Continental Congress when delegates met in May in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The delegates decided that the man for the job was George Washington. He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. He seemed to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. The delegates elected him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He accepted the position, but he said he would not take any money for leading the new army. George Washington left Philadelphia for Massachusetts, where he took command on July third, seventeen seventy-five. "He was tall, he was very elegant, very well put together”. Jayne Gordon at the Massachusetts Historical Society says Washington looked very impressive. “It's very interesting because when he came to take command of the Continental Army, many of the New England soldiers were not quite sure what to make of this man who was, after all, from Virginia, not from New England. Washington won them over. His conduct, his grace, I think his discipline was extremely important." Back in Philadelphia, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Great Britain. They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. The king would not even read the message. You might wonder: Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight?




The answer is that most of the members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from England. They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British Empire. Jayne Gordon at the Massachusetts Historical Society says many colonists felt conflicted and confused about their identity. "They're Englishmen, they're still Englishmen, but they're not Englishmen. All along what they've wanted is just to have the rights of Englishmen. And it doesn't seem to be possible under an old system." A major battle took place in June of seventeen seventy-five, just two days after the delegates in Philadelphia chose George Washington as commander. It was the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills: Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston. Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them not to fire on the British until they saw the whites of their eyes. The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group of British soldiers climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder. Peter Drummey, a librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society, reads part of a letter that a young soldier wrote to his mother. "’I was in the fort when the enemy came in, jumped over the wall, and ran half a mile, where balls’ — that is, musket balls — ‘flew like hail stones, and cannon roared like thunder.’" The British captured Breed's Hill. But Peter Drummey says the Americans still considered the battle a kind of victory. "The paradox is, even though the American forces are defeated and forced off the hill, nevertheless the British casualties are so high it is at least a moral victory." Even the young American soldier who fled the battle wrote to his mother that he would continue fighting for American independence.




"And in fact that's probably what the British learned from this battle. That they could capture this hill at great cost, but the New England countryside is full of hills and they couldn't capture them all back." That battle also reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. The American colonists fought several battles against British troops in seventeen seventy-five. Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. The colonists feared these soldiers and hated the British for using them. In January of seventeen seventy-six, Thomas Paine published a document that strongly influenced the colonists. He named the pamphlet "Common Sense." It attacked King George, as well as the idea of a monarchy — a government led by a king or queen. The pamphlet called for independence. About one hundred fifty thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in the colonies. Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Second Continental Congress began to act. It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. On June seventh, seventeen seventy-six, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee proposed a resolution for independence. The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. Signing such a document would make the delegates traitors to Britain. They would be killed if captured by the British. The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. One member of this committee was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. He had already written a report criticizing the monarchy. So the other committee members asked him to write the new document. They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. Jefferson was thirty-three years old. It took him seventeen days to write the document. The Second Continental Congress approved it on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. It was America's Declaration of Independence.




Historian Gordon Wood at Brown University says the declaration sent a message to more than just the British. "They're trying to, I think, to signal to the world, 'We are a new nation. We have broken away from this other nation. We're a separate nation and we want recognition of our independence.'" The Declaration of Independence begins with these words: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. The declaration goes on to say: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government. The British believed that the Americans were violating British law. Jefferson argued that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. This idea of natural law had been expressed by British and French philosophers more than one hundred years earlier. Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. But in writing the Declaration of Independence, he said, the words came straight from his heart. The declaration goes on to list twenty-seven complaints against the king. There are complaints against taxes without the consent of the colonists and against the presence of British troops in the colonies. After the list, Jefferson went on to write this statement:




That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states they have the full power to levy war, conduct peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. Jefferson concluded the declaration with a line that was meant to persuade the delegates to support the most serious step -- revolution. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Delegates to Continental Congress approved and signed the Declaration of Independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. The new country was called the United States of America, and it was at war with Britain. Yet, not everyone in the former colonies agreed with the decision. That will be our story next week. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/transcript/1551273.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/transcript/1551273.html



58. Harvard University.

A View of Harvard University.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. Today, we tell about the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, Harvard University. Harvard University began in sixteen-thirty-six in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. The area was an English colony settled mainly by Puritans who did not agree with the Anglican Church in England. The university was named after a Puritan religious leader, John Harvard. He gave the college four-hundred books when he died.




Today, Harvard has more than ninety libraries containing more than twelve-million books. The university includes Harvard College, Radcliffe College, and ten graduate schools. Its medical college, law school and business school are among the best in the country. It also offers graduate programs in government, education, religion and science. Many years ago, Harvard students were all white men. Most of them were from rich families from northeastern states. That has changed. This year, about thirty-three percent of the first-year students at Harvard are from minority groups. These include African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans. Almost fifty percent of first-year students are women. Today, most Harvard students are not rich, although it is very costly to study there. It costs more than thirty-five-thousand dollars for one year for tuition, room, food and personal expenses. Most of the students at Harvard have loans, financial aid or jobs that help pay for their education. Many experts consider Harvard to be the best university in the United States. It is very difficult to be accepted to study there. More than nineteen-thousand high school students applied to attend Harvard as undergraduates last year. About one-thousand-six-hundred of them began studying there in September. More than nineteen-thousand undergraduate and graduate students are studying at Harvard this year. More than three-thousand are from outside the United States. Most of the foreign students are from Asia or Europe. Most are studying for graduate degrees. The Harvard International Office helps meet the needs of foreign students. To find out more about Harvard, you can go to the university's Internet Web site. The address is w-w-w dot h-a-r-v-a-r-d dot e-d-u. (www.harvard.edu) This V-O-A Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2003/02/13/0041/


http://www.harvard.edu/




59. Can You 'Think and Grow Rich?' A Famous Books Says, 'Yes'.

From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English. Can you think your way to wealth and success? Napoleon Hill believed that if you think the right thoughts you can. In nineteen thirty-seven, after many years of researching financial success and observing people who had become rich, he published the book “Think and Grow Rich.” Even though it was published in the middle of The Great Depression, it was immediately successful. It is one of the most-popular non-fiction books ever written. Forbes Magazine says it has sold seventy million copies since it first appeared, and continues to sell copies today. Napoleon Hill wrote at least ten other books about success before his death in nineteen seventy. But none of them came close to selling as many copies as “Think and Grow Rich.”




SmarterComics has released an illustrated version of the book. Franco Arda is the company’s founder and publisher. He used to work as an investment banker. He started the company three years ago with his own money. He wanted to create picture books that increase understanding. His versions provide much of the information that is in full-length books but in an easy-to-understand, picture, or comic, form. Mr. Arda says readers will understand and remember more about gaining success if they read the comic book version of “Think and Grow Rich.” “Because it’s illustrated, it’s a comic book style -- one, it’s easier to read and, two, it’s also easier to remember. Because once you see something visually, it’s just your brain can absorb it much quicker and then you can retain it much longer.” Mr. Arda says he first read “Think and Grow Rich” when he was a teenager. He credits the book for much of his financial success. He says it taught him to change the way he thinks about money and success. “We have to start with your brain first to subconsciously program yourself towards riches that you can imagine, or that you think money and, obviously that you create a plan afterwards.” Mr. Arda says Napoleon Hill found that you must write down what you want to achieve, how and when you want to achieve it and what you are willing to sacrifice for it. Napoleon Hill said you must read that statement out loud every morning when you wake up and every evening before you go to sleep. SmarterComics says “Think and Grow Rich” proves that “wealth is a lifelong pursuit achieved by believing in the value of personal ideas.” It says anyone can achieve their dreams by refusing to be stopped by temporary problems. And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report. I’m Chris Cruise.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/can-you-think-and-grow-rich-a-famous-book-says-yes/1536923.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/can-you-think-and-grow-rich-a-famous-book-says-yes/1536923.html

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/can-you-think-and-grow-rich-a-famous-book-says-yes/1536923.html



60. Are You Ready for Success?, by Brian Tracy.

Everyone wants to be successful. Everyone wants to have more, be more, do more, and enjoy more of what life has to offer. Human beings are teleological. That is, we are goal-seeking organisms. We are driven continually forward toward the accomplishment of the things that are important to us. The entire human race is a huge mass of individuals striving toward the realization of their potentials in every area. Because of this, there is tremendous competition for the good things in life. Everybody wants them and no one is ever fully satisfied. The satisfaction of want or desire leads automatically to a want or desire for something else. And it never ends. The Will to Win. What then is the difference between those who accomplish a lot and those who accomplish a little? It was the University of Alabama football coach, Bear Bryant, who said, “It is not the will to win but the will to prepare to win that counts.”




And therein lies the answer to the question. Everyone wants to be a winner. But very few people want to engage in the rigorous hard work, hour after hour, month after month, year after year, that is required to prepare themselves to win. Mary Lou Retton, the gold medalist winner in the 1984 Los Angeles women's gymnastics, said that she gave up all the activities of a normal childhood, from the age of seven, in order to prepare to win in the Olympic Games. For nine solid years, she paid an incredible price in terms of practice, practice, practice, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. She missed the opportunities for dating, parties, the Senior Prom and much of the social activities that young people engage in. But she knew from the beginning that winning the Olympics would only be possible if she was willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice in terms of hard, hard work, for months and years in advance. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. You want to win too. You want to be a big success in life. You want to go all the way to the top. You want to develop your potential to the maximum. You want to become everything you're capable of becoming. You want to earn all the money that is possible for you and enjoy the finest standard of living that you can achieve. You want to earn the respect and esteem and appreciation of all those people around you whose opinions you care about. You want to be a winner in your own personal Olympic Games, and the way to do it has never changed. Success requires that you prepare, prepare, prepare. Earl Nightingale once said that if a person does not prepare for their success in advance, when their opportunity comes, it will only make them look foolish. You've probably heard it said repeatedly that, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” It's only when you've paid the price to be ready for your success that you're in a position to take advantage of your opportunities when they arise. And the most remarkable thing is this: The very act of preparation attracts to you, like iron filings to a magnet, opportunities to use that preparation to advance in your life. You'll seldom learn anything of value, or prepare yourself in any area, without very soon having a chance to use your new knowledge and your new skills to move ahead more rapidly.




How to Prepare There are a series of things that you can do to prepare for success. Each of these activities requires self-discipline and a good deal of faith. They require self-discipline because the most normal and natural thing for people to do is to try to get by without preparation. Instead of taking the time and making the effort to be ready for their chance when it comes, they instead fool around, listen to the radio, watch television, and then they try to "wing it" and fool others into thinking they are more prepared than they really are. And since we're all transparent, since everyone can see through everyone else, the unprepared person simply look incompetent and foolish. Preparation also requires a lot of faith because you have no evidence in advance to demonstrate or prove to yourself that the preparation will pay off. You simply have to believe deep within yourself that everything you do of a constructive nature will come back to you in some way. You have to know that no good effort is ever wasted. You have to be willing to "sow" for a long time before you reap, knowing that if you do so in quality and quantity, the reaping will come about, inevitably, with the force of a law of nature. Let me leave you with this beautiful poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Those heights by great men won and kept; they were not achieved by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept were toiling upward into the night.” Your possibilities are endless, your potential is unlimited, your future opens up before you when you prepare yourself for the success that must inevitably be yours. Source: Free Newsletter of Brian Tracy. This was compiled by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. Observation: This document doesn't have mp3.





«The effective man always states at the beginning of a meeting

the specific purpose and contribution it is to achieve. He always,

at the end of his meetings, goes back to the opening statement

and relates the final conclusions to the original intent».

— Peter Drucker.




61. The Formula For Failure And Success.

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. Jim Rohn. http://www.successmagazine.com/

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result

of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing

more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every

day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.


http://www.successmagazine.com/expert?authorId=19

http://www.successmagazine.com/



On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a

wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not,

we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not made an effort to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline

does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened

to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on

and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far

worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the

joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those

who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after

year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment

have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they

accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our

poor choices - choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem

to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated

errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since

nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention,

we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts,

listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us

yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable

consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we

undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated

again. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would

have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.




Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is

imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful,

personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment

and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to

follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the

formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by

making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or

unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time

to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it

doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human

beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little

further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our

current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary

action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining

ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our

errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success - a few simple disciplines practiced every

day - is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily

disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our

diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new

vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a

new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce

exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.




The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to

start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more,

then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today

to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and

deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life

of existence — not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

This was compiled by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. Observation: This document doesn't have mp3. «The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us». Marianne Williamson, Author and Spiritual Activist «Feedback is the breakfast of champions». R. Tate «Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life». Confucius, Philosopher.




62. Three Forms of Intellectual Capital, by Brian Tracy.

Personal excellence is perhaps the most important of all invisible and intangible assets that you

can acquire. Achieving personal excellence in your business or industry requires lifelong

dedication. But once you get into the top 10 percent of your field, you will be one of the highest

paid people in the country. You will enjoy the respect and esteem of the people around you. You

will be able to live your life the way you want to live it. You will enjoy high levels of self-esteem,

self-respect, and personal pride.




Build Your Intellectual Assets.

Each person has or can acquire three forms of intellectual capital. These require an investment of

study and hard work, but they pay off in higher income for the rest of your life. The first type of

intellectual capital you can acquire consists of your core knowledge, skills, and abilities. These are

the result of education, experience, and training. They determine how well you do your job and

the value of your contribution to your business.

Build Your Internal Knowledge.

The second form of intellectual capital that you posses is your knowledge of how your business

operates internally, in comparison to that of your competitors or any other business. Each

business develops a series or systems, procedures, methods, techniques, and strategies to

market, sell, produce, deliver products and services, and satisfy customers. Each business has

internal systems for accounting, administration, and financial controls. These systems take many

years to develop and considerable time for a new person to learn. A person who knows and

understands these systems intimately has a form of intellectual capital that is difficult for the

company to replace.

Build Your Ability to Get Results.

The third form of intellectual capital that you possess, and that is perhaps the key determinant of

your earning ability, is your knowledge and understanding of how you can get financial results in

a competitive market. This includes your knowledge of your products and services and how to sell

them. It includes your knowledge of customers and suppliers and how to deal with them. It

embraces your familiarity with bankers, lawyers, accountants, and government officials and how

to interact with them effectively.




This form of intellectual capital may take years to build, and it is extremely valuable to your

organization. You first responsibility to yourself is to develop your earning ability to a high level.

You do this by continually increasing your intellectual capital, by upgrading your ability to do your

job, by becoming a valuable part of your organization, and by getting more and better financial

results for your organization.

Action Exercise.

Take time to get to know every component of your business. Get to know your customers and

learn everything there is to know about your products and services.

Source: Free Newsletter of Brian Tracy.

Original title: «Achieving personal excellence, by Brian Tracy». New title by: M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz Observation: This document doesn't have mp3. «Concentrate more on your achievements than your failures. Learn to take the failures as opportunities to rectify your errors». Stephen Richards. «Extra miles, extensive preparation and exhaustive efforts usually show astonishing results». Roopleen.




63. Relax and Recharge Completely, by Brian Tracy.

Did you know that regular relaxation is essential for a long life and personal effectiveness? Here

are some techniques for relaxing physically that are used by the most successful and highest paid

people in America.

Take Time Off Every Week.

First of all, work only five or six days per week, and rest completely on the seventh day. Every

single study in this area shows that you will be far more productive in the five or six days that you

work if you take one or two days off completely than you ever would be if you worked straight

through for seven days.




Get Your Mind Busy Elsewhere

During this time off, do not catch up on reports, organize your desk, prepare proposals, or do

anything else that requires mental effort. Simply let your mind relax completely, and get busy

doing things with your family and friends. Maybe work around the house, go for a walk, engage

in physical exercise, watch television, go to a movie, or play with your children. Whatever you do,

discipline yourself to shut your mental gears off completely for at least one 24-hour period every

seven days.

Get Away on Mini-Vacations

Second, take one three-day vacation every three months, and during that time, refrain from doing

any work. Do not attempt to catch up on even a few small things. If you do, you keep your mental

gears in motion, and you end up neither resting nor properly doing work of any quality.

Take Big Portions of Down Time

Third, take at least two full weeks off each year during which you do nothing that is work-related.

You can either work or relax; you cannot do both. If you attempt to do a little work while you are

on vacation, you never give your mental and emotional batteries a chance to recharge. You'll

come back from your vacation just as tired as you were when you left.

Give Yourself a Break Today

If you are involved in a difficult relationship, or situation at work that is emotionally draining,

discipline yourself to take a complete break from it at least one day per week. Put the concern

out of your mind. Refuse to think about it. Don't continually discuss it, make telephone calls about

it or mull it over in your mind. You cannot perform at your best mentally if you are emotionally

preoccupied with a person or situation. You have to give yourself a break.




Go For a Walk in Nature

Since a change is as good as a rest, going for a nice long walk is a wonderful way to relax

emotionally and mentally. As you put your physical body into motion, your thoughts and feelings

seem to relax all by themselves.

Eat Lighter Foods

Also, remember that the process of digestion consumes an enormous amount of physical energy.

Therefore, if you eat lighter foods, you will feel better and more refreshed afterward. If you eat

more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain products, your digestive system will require far less

energy to process them.

Be Good to Yourself

Since your diet has such an impact on your level of physical energy, and through it your levels of

mental and emotional energy, the more fastidious you are about what you put into your mouth,

the better you will feel and the more productive you will be.

We know now that foods high in fat, sugar, or salt are not good for your body. The lighter the

foods you eat, the more energy you have.

Action Exercises

Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

- First, plan your weeks in advance and build in at least one day when you will relax from

work completely. Discipline yourself to keep this date.

- Second, reserve, book and pay for your three day vacations several months in advance.

Once you've paid the money, you are much more likely to go rather than put it off.

- Third, decide that you will not work at all during your vacations. When you work, work.

And when you rest, rest 100% of the time. This is very important.




Brian Tracy.

Source: Free Newsletter of Brian Tracy.

This was compiled by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.





64. Strategies to Master your Professional Field, by Brian Tracy.

There are three personality powers that top leaders use to increase their personal power and

influence.

Your Emotions Are Contagious.

The first power you can develop is enthusiasm. The more excited you are about accomplishing

something that is important to you, the more excited others will be about helping you to do it.

The fact is that emotions are contagious. The more passion you have for your life and your

activities, the more charisma you will possess, and the more cooperation you will gain from

others. Every great man or woman has been totally committed to a noble cause and, as a result,

has attracted the support and encouragement of others in many cases, thousands or millions of

others.




The Key to Charisma.

The second personality power that you can develop is expertise, or competence. The more

knowledgeable you are perceived to be in your field, the more charisma you will have among

those who respect and admire that knowledge because of the impact it can have on their lives.

This is also the power of excellence, of being recognized by others as an outstanding performer

in your field. Men and women who do their jobs extremely well and who are recognized for the

quality of their work are those who naturally attract the help and support of others. They have

charisma.

Prepare Thoroughly for Every Event.

The third power of personality that gives you charisma in the eyes of others is thorough

preparation, detailed preparation, prior to undertaking any significant task. Whether you are

calling on a prospect, meeting with your boss, giving a public talk or making any other kind of

presentation, when you are well-prepared, it becomes clear to everyone. The careers of many

young people are put onto the fast track as a result of their coming to an important meeting after

having done all their homework.

Get on Top of Your Subject.

Whether it takes you hours or even days, if an upcoming meeting or interaction is important, take

the time to get on top of your subject. Be so thoroughly prepared that nothing can faze you. Think

through and consider every possibility and every ramification. Often, this effort to be fully

prepared will do more to generate the respect of others than anything else you can do.




Keep Good Notes.

Remember that the power is always on the side of the person who has done the most preparation

and has the best notes. Everything counts. Leave nothing to chance. When you do something

related to your work or career, take the time to do it right the first time.

You are a work in progress. You are always growing and improving. Your job is to become the very

best leader you can be, and you can - with regular and persistent practice of these personality

powers.

Action Exercises.

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, get excited about your goals and your work if you want others to be excited. Express your

belief and commitment to others at every opportunity.

Second, dedicate yourself to a lifelong process of getting better and better at what you do.

Prepare thoroughly for every event. Set an example in everything you do.

Original Title: «Three Keys to Personal Power, by Brian Tracy». New Title by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. Source: Free Newsletter of Brian Tracy. Observation: This document doesn't have mp3.




65. Using Your Inner Guidance System, by Brian Tracy.

If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if

today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run

John Bingham You have incredible powers of mind and emotions that give you timely and accurate feedback in every area of your life. In this newsletter, you learn how to "tune in" to yourself so you can make the right decision in every situation. Using Your Inner Guidance System. We know that the body has a natural bias toward health and energy. It's designed to last for 100 years with proper care and maintenance. When something goes wrong with any part of our body, we experience it in the form of pain or discomfort of some kind.




We know that when our body is not functioning smoothly and painlessly, something is wrong, and we take action to correct it. We go to a doctor; we take pills; we undergo physical therapy, massage or chiropractic. We know that if we ignore pain or discomfort for any period of time, it could lead to something more serious. How to Tell Right From Wrong. In the same sense, nature also gives us a way to tell emotionally what's right for us and what's wrong for us in life. Just as nature gives us physical pain to guide us to doing or not doing things in the physical realm, nature gives us emotional pain to guide us toward doing or not doing things in the emotional or mental realm. The wonderful thing is that you're constructed so that if you simply listen carefully to yourself-to your mind, your body and your emotions-and follow the guidance you're given, you can dramatically enhance the quality of your life. Just as the natural physical state of your body is health and vitality, your natural emotional state is peace and happiness. Whenever you experience a deviation from peace and happiness, it's an indication that something is amiss. Something is wrong with what you're thinking, doing or saying. Your feeling of inner happiness is the best indicator you could ever have to tell you what you should be doing more of and what you should be doing less of. The Messenger. Unhappiness is to your life as pain is to your body. It is sent as a messenger to tell you that what you're doing is wrong for you. Very often, you'll suffer from what has been called "divine discontent." You'll feel fidgety and uneasy for a reason or reasons that are unclear to you. You'll be dissatisfied with the status quo. Sometimes, you'll be unable to sleep. Sometimes, you'll be angry or irritable. Very often, you'll get upset with things that have nothing to do with the real issue. You'll have a deep inner sense that something isn't as it should be, and you'll often feel like a fish on a hook, wriggling and squirming emotionally to get free. Divine Discontent. And that is a good thing. Divine discontent always comes before a positive life change. If you were perfectly satisfied, you would never take any action to improve or change your circumstances. Only when you're dissatisfied for some reason do you have the inner motivation to engage in the outer behaviors that lead you onward and upward. Listen to yourself. Trust your inner voice. Go with the flow of your own personality. Do the things that make you feel happy inside and you'll probably never make another mistake.




Action Exercises. Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action. First, listen to yourself and trust your own feelings. If there is a part of your life that causes you stress and unhappiness, resolve to deal with it. Second, identify those areas of your life where you are dissatisfied or frustrated for any reason. What changes should you, could you make? Third, remember that nature wants you to be happy, healthy, popular and prosperous. Any deviation from those conditions is a signal to you that action is necessary. Source: Free Newsletter of Brian Tracy. Recopiló: M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. Observation: This document doesn't have mp3.




66. China Rising: The Return of the Dragon.

Chinese philosopher Confucius. Hello, and welcome back to As It Is from VOA Learning English. I’m Jerilyn Watson. Today on the program, we talk about China and two new books about it. One writer describes it as rising. The other says it faces serious difficulties. Timothy Beardson is the author of “Stumbling Giant: The Threats to China’s Future.” He says China may have only 20 years to deal with some serious issues that could hurt its economy. We will hear from him in the program.




But first, we talk with Denny Roy who has written a book called “Return of the Dragon.” He says China plans to build a strong military, protect its economic interests, and rise to what it believes is its right place in the world. VOA’s Jim Stevenson spoke with both authors. Today Bob Doughty joins us to tell us about those talks. Return of the Dragon: China Rising Jim Stevenson recently spoke with Denny Roy of the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mr. Roy is an expert on Asia Pacific security issues, especially those involving China. His latest book, “Return of the Dragon: Rising China and Regional Security,” was published in July. In the book, Mr. Roy says China sees its current rise in power and influence as natural. He says China believes it is a return to the position it always should have had in world issues. “The Chinese see themselves as having gone through a recent period of victimization, of being knocked off the top of the hill and thrust down to the bottom of the hill -- what the Chinese call the ‘century of humiliation.’ So, China has from its historical background kind of a combination of number one, entitlement and, number two, a sense of having been recently and brutally victimized and therefore having to take great care that it’s never in a, such a vulnerable position ever again.” Denny Roy says this period of victimization, as China sees it, is why China does not support modern international law. He says it also is the reason China does not accept other nations -- especially the United States -- trying to limit its rise. He says China wants to guarantee that other nations will never disrespect it again. He says that means China will seek to protect itself with a strong military and protect its economic interests. He says this includes the gathering of valuable minerals, oil and other resources. “China sees it (as) natural that a strong country has strong military forces. The Chinese would consider that to be the case for any country, but certainly all the more so in China’s case because China is a very large country and also has ample reason to suspect the designs of the other great powers because of its recent history as a victim.” In “Return of the Dragon,” Mr. Roy says China sometimes seems unable to hold a clear identity. Is it a developing nation or a superpower?




“China’s often charged by critics with sort of wanting to have it both ways -- on the one hand still arguing in some fora that they’re a developing country and therefore they deserve certain breaks that developed countries are no longer eligible for. And that they’re too poor to pay the costs of big global initiatives that benefit other countries, where China still needs to build itself up. But on the other hand, the Chinese demand, you know, the full right of having a say at, at every table and being treated as a newly great and powerful country -- maybe even in some cases on par with the United States.” Mr. Roy says the increased American attention on Asia makes Chinese leaders nervous and suspicious of American intentions. “If there’s a conflict between the United States and China, this is set up by larger, tectonic movements: It’s the arising of a new great power in a region that has already long been under the, the near domination of another great power -- the United State of America. The key thing is, can the two countries articulate their interests to each other in such a way that the other party finds the deal offered by the other side to be acceptable?” Stumbling Giant: The Threats to China’s Future Timothy Beardson is the author of the new book “Stumbling Giant: The Threats to China’s Future.” Mr. Beardson was the owner of a large investment bank in Asia. Mr. Beardson says China’s aging population and relatively low birth rate is one problem. He says the responsibility for caring for these people will fall to China’s younger generation. Most of that population is single children. They have no brothers or sisters to help care for their parents and grandparents. Timothy Beardson says the government will have to assist them. “Hundred million over 65 (years old) now, by 2030, 300 million over 65. But, coupling that with the fact that the shape of the Chinese family is changing -- now a couple of young adults would have maybe four parents alive and maybe eight grandparents alive and that simply becomes overwhelming for a, a couple now to look after all those elderly.” Timothy Beardson says at the same time, falling birth rates mean the population will start to shrink quickly. He believes that by the end of this century, China and the United States will have the same number of people. China’s lead in a manufacturing workforce will end.




“The workforce, which has been abundant, growing rapidly -- and therefore wages have stayed low and China’s been a very competitive place to be making cheap manufactured goods -- and that is all changing because the last 30 years the number of births has gone down, and that’s now coming through to the fact the labor force is starting to shrink.” And, Mr. Beardson says China will suffer because of its one-child policy. Chinese parents generally seek male children over female. He says the country will experience great social insecurity when millions of Chinese men are unable to find a wife. “In a society like China they tend to want to have boys not girls -- and they tend to stake steps to make sure that’s the case. So what we’ve seen for the last two decades is that six boys have been born on average for every five girls. And therefore we know that in the next 20 years we’re gonna be about 50,000,000 men who are not gonna get a wife, and these people are gonna be bitter, angry and will eventually, I suggest, be a source of social instability in China.” Many of these trends cannot be changed, he says, so China must move on other reforms, especially in education and innovation. “There are a lot of problems in China which can be addressed and I suggest that it’s better for China to make its reforms early, rather than to delay. I think there’s a window of maybe 20 years to get reforms done, and I think there hasn’t been (a) sufficient sense of urgency amongst policymakers in China in recent years.” Mr. Beardson also says poor environmental conditions threaten the health and longevity of China’s population. He says the country has strong environmental laws, but it has not enforced them. I’m Jerilyn Watson. And that’s As It Is for today. What would you like to hear about on As It Is? We want to hear from you. Send an e-mail to [email protected]. Or send a letter to VOA Learning English, Washington, DC 20237, USA. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/china-rising-the-return-of-the-dragon/1767332.html


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Political Map of Asia.

Source: http://www.mapaasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/mapa-asia-politico.gif


http://www.mapaasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/mapa-asia-politico.gif



67. What Engineers Do, and How They Learn.

Hello, and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning English. I’m Christopher Cruise in Washington. Today on the program, we explore the complex and important world of engineering -- how people use science to solve problems or invent new things. “Well I believe real engineers need to engineer things, need to envision what has never been, and to build things every semester.” We sent VOA Learning English Reporter Karen Leggett out to live in the engineering world. Over the past few months she interviewed officials at the National Academy of Sciences, an engineer at the U.S. Geological Survey, engineering educators and an engineering professor in India, among others. She learned how engineering students are being taught. Believe it or not, some of them are reading literature to help them learn how to become better engineers.




Now, back from the world of engineering, here is Karen Leggett. The World of Engineering: Successes and Challenges Think about the great engineering successes of the 20th century. What would you include? We could start with airplanes. How about radio and television broadcasts or computers? In 2008, the National Academy of Engineering asked a group of scientists, engineers and technology experts to identify the biggest engineering challenges for the 21st century. This group identified 14 big challenges or issues. They divided these issues into four subject areas: sustainability, health, reducing threats and joy of living. The Joy of Living and Engineering Joy of living? What does that have to do with engineering? Rick Miller is President of the Olin College of Engineering. “Well not everything that we think about going forward is a threat to the human race. Some of it is about joy and improving the quality of life. One of the things that is certainly true in the U.S. -- and I believe it’s increasingly true across the globe -- is the expectation that every generation will have a quality of life that exceeds that of their parents.” Mr. Miller says part of engineering today is about making life better. For example, engineers can help provide clean water for more people. Or they can improve medicines. Engineering can help us understand how the human brain works, and how every person can learn best. All these efforts are part of improving the quality of life. In other words, they help to increase the joy of living. How Engineering Helps Make the World a Better Place Experts say engineering can help the world become safer and more efficient in the 21st century. They say engineers could design ways to prevent terrorists from using nuclear weapons. Or they could stop computer hackers from stealing information on the Internet. Engineers can make it easier to use energy from the sun, or find new sources of energy.




Rick Miller says engineers have to work together to solve many challenges. The issues are too large and complex for any one group of engineers -- or one country -- to solve alone. Mr. Miller says that when engineers from around the world cooperate, they can save the planet! But he says before engineers can start solving the world’s problems they need to learn how to think creatively. His school -- Franklin W. Olin College -- was recently recognized for developing engineering leaders. “Creativity is important to what we do. We look for students with multiple intelligences -- not just math scores. Olin believes that an engineer is a person who envisions what has never been and does whatever it takes to make it happen.” How Students Learn to Become Engineers Olin College is a small engineering school in the state of Massachusetts. Its students learn through creative projects. Mr. Miller says, for example, a student might design an insect such as a grasshopper. In five weeks, students have to create the design, build a model, and then compete to see whose “grasshopper” jumps the highest. Olin College students also identify people they would like to help. Some students have invented ways to help older adults suffering from memory loss. Others have created designs to help servers in coffee shops do their jobs better. Mr. Miller says he wants his engineering students to work at being engineers -- just like art students practice making art. “Real musicians need to play music every semester. And, in fact, it’s like oxygen. Well, I believe real engineers need to engineer things, need to envision what has never been and to build things every semester.” Learning How to Use Engineering to Improve Lives Olin College is not the only school that teaches students how to think about engineering challenges. Pennsylvania State University offers what it calls the Humanitarian Engineering Social Entrepreneurship program -- in other words, students use engineering to improve people’s lives. In one project, students developed and tested low cost greenhouses in Kenya. Greenhouses are used for growing plants. These enclosed areas give farmers a longer growing season.




Other college engineering programs are giving students a chance to create products and launch businesses before they finish their education. For example, engineering students at Rice University in Texas have designed 58 health care products. The university says the products are now used to care for 45,000 patients in 21 countries. High School Students Learn Engineering In North Carolina, classes at a new secondary school are organized around the grand challenges of the 21st century. Rob Matheson is head of the STEM Early College High School. STEM stands for the words Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. “And what struck me as a science educator is that the challenges really cut across all of the basic sciences that we teach -- earth science, life and chemical. The answers to these big questions -- like access to clean water -- is in the humanities.” Reading Literature to Become Better Engineers Rob Matheson’s students not only take engineering classes; they also study literature and history. He says students might read books like “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” by William Kamkwamba. This book tells the true story of a boy in Malawi who built a windmill to bring electricity to his village. Another assigned reading might be “Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding. The book tells about a group of boys alone on an island. “They read ‘Lord of the Flies’ and then the project is, you know, ‘Imagine that you were, you crash-landed on this island and how are you going to sustain yourself? How are you going to provide the energy that you need?’” Mr. Matheson believes students should learn early in their education to make connections between science and people. “The question nowadays is what are you doing with your chemistry knowledge? What processes or product are you producing that is benefitting mankind as opposed to just, ‘I, I know my chemistry.’” And that’s our program for today. It was reported, and written in Special English, by Karen Leggett. I’m Christopher Cruise reporting from VOA Learning English headquarters in Washington.




June Simms will be here tomorrow with another edition of As It Is. I hope you’ll join her then, here on The Voice of America. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/engineering-students-stem/1846004.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/engineering-students-stem/1846004.html



68. The Mayan Civilization.

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Scientists are using the most modern space satellites to solve one of the great mysteries of the ancient world.




Our report today begins more than one thousand years ago. Travel with us back in time to learn about the Mayan civilization. Our trip begins in the year eight hundred twenty-five. We are in an area near the border between modern Mexico and Guatemala.

VOICE ONE:

We are in the Mayan city of Tikal. The city has huge buildings made of stone. The morning sun makes the smooth, white stone shine brightly. One of the huge buildings is used for religious ceremonies. It is the temple to the Rain God Chac (chalk). The Rain God demands human blood or he will withhold the rain needed to grow crops. The Mayans kill captured enemies at the top of Chac's temple to please this fierce god.

Mayan scientists use another huge building to study the stars. They use this building and similar ones in other cities to make the Mayan calendar. This calendar correctly shows the seasons and the number of days in the year. Farmers use this calendar to plant crops during the best season for growing. Religious leaders use the calendar to help decide when to hold religious ceremonies.

Probably the most recognised attraction of the Mayan ruins of Chichen itza this magnificent pyramid is called ‘Castle of the Plumed Serpent’ (or Temple of Kukulkan).




Location of Chichen Itza in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Chichen Itza is an impressive archaeological site located to the southeast of Merida, Yucatan's capital city. During its golden years, Chichen Itza was the most important political, economic and religious center for the Mayan civilization.

VOICE TWO:

Thousands of people are in Tikal. Many farmers have come to the city to sell their crops. Many workers make pots or clothing. Others make buildings of stone.




Religious leaders are walking toward a temple. A member of the Mayan royal family is being carried in a large chair. He is followed by large groups of fierce Mayan soldiers. They wear bird feathers and animal skins. They carry dangerous weapons.

The city of Tikal is large. Its center is surrounded by many thousands of homes. The city stretches for several kilometers in many directions. The Mayan people who built Tikal had a very successful civilization.

The people do not know that their civilization will disappear very soon. The people will be gone. The soldiers with their fierce weapons will be gone. The royal family will be gone.

Nothing will remain but the huge stone buildings. In time, thick jungle will cover them, and they will become homes for birds and monkeys. The huge city will be empty.

Maya Region.




VOICE ONE:

Many years before European explorers arrived in the western hemisphere, the Maya lived in the area that is now southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Explorers have discovered many of the great cities the Maya left behind. Tikal is one of the largest and most beautiful. But there are many others.

Within these cities, scientists found evidence of a complex written language, advanced mathematics, astronomy and beautiful works of art. But they could never find good evidence about what happened to the Mayan civilization.

What forced these people to leave their homes and their beautiful cities? Could it have been wars? A lack of food? Disease? Recently, part of the answer to this question has come from satellites in orbit around the Earth.

VOICE TWO:

NASA scientists Tom Sever (SEE-ver) and Dan Irwin are experts in the history of the Maya. Mister Sever and Mister Irwin have been working to understand the history of the Maya and their natural environment. They believe that history may hold important lessons for people living in the same areas today.

Mister Sever, Mister Irwin and other scientists hope to help governments and people in the areas continue to live there. The scientists hope that by learning from the Maya, people today will not make the mistakes that caused the Mayan civilization to fail.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Sever has found that by the year nine hundred fifty the huge Mayan population was gone. He believes as many as ninety to ninety-five percent of the Maya population died. The archeologist is using NASA satellites and weather information to study the soil in the area and the ancient Mayan cities for evidence.

He is trying to solve the mystery by studying pollen -- extremely small particles produced by seed plants. He says soil from deep in the earth shows no evidence of any pollen from trees during the time just before the Mayan civilization ended. He says this is one piece of evidence to show why the Maya failed.




He says soil experts found only pollen from weeds and other small plants. Mister Sever says the Maya had always cut down huge amounts of forest. They used the wood for building. They burned it to cook food. They also burned large amounts of wood in extremely hot fires to work with a kind of stone. They used the stone to make floors. In time, the trees disappeared.

VOICE TWO:

The loss of many trees led to loss of soil. Fertile topsoil washed into areas that had once been lakes. Evidence shows that the loss of trees may also have caused an increase in the area's temperature. The increase in heat caused water to disappear. Warmer temperatures also dried out the land. Rising temperatures also may have caused changes in rainfall. These actions all caused a decrease in the crops the Maya could harvest. A loss of food may have led to wars among the Mayan groups.

VOICE ONE:

The ancient city of Tikal is near an area of wetlands. About forty percent of the land used by the Maya were wetlands. Mayan cities were built on or very near these wetlands.

Rain soaks the soil in these wetlands during the rainy season now, much as it did during the Mayan period. This land was extremely important to their environment and survival. The Maya learned to save huge amounts of water to be used during the growing season. Modern satellite photographs shows evidence that the Maya built a series of small waterways called canals. Mister Sever believes they may have done so to control, save and reuse rainwater so they could grow crops during the dry season.

VOICE TWO:

Archeologist Tom Sever says experts used to argue about what caused the Maya to fail. Was it wars, lack of food, disease or political problems? He says scientists now think that all of these things led to failure. But these problems were all the result of a severe lack of water. A natural period of less rain and the cutting of trees reduced their water supply.

Trees began to grow again after the failure of the Mayan civilization. The trees and the jungle covered their huge ancient cities.




VOICE ONE:

Tom Sever studies the ancient Maya. What he has learned has caused great concern about what could happen to the population now living in the same area. This area includes southern Mexico, northern Guatemala and Belize. Farming in these areas is done by a method called slash and burn. Farmers cut down trees or burn them and then plant crops.

The soil is very rich for the first year of planting. But the soil becomes less rich during the second year then becomes poor the next year. Farmers then move deeper into the forest and again cut down or burn the trees to make room for planting new crops. Mister Sever says modern equipment has made it much easier to cut down trees more quickly.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Sever has used satellites to show how slash and burn farming is affecting the Earth. For example, satellite images show part of the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Most political borders are invisible in satellite images. But these photographs show a sharp line between areas of rain forest and farmed areas. The rainforest still exists in Guatemala. But it stops at the Mexican border where the trees have been cut down for farming.

Mister Sever says the governments of the nations involved must take steps to protect the environment or they will suffer problems in the future. He and other scientists are now working with the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture to find areas in the ancient Mayan wetlands with good soil.

They also are considering planting test crops in those areas. They hope to bring water to the crops using the same method the Maya did – by building canals. Mister Sever says learning from the Maya is extremely important for the future of this area of the world. He says modern farmers should use those methods that worked well for the Maya and not make the same mistakes that caused the failure of their civilization.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.




VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page:


Notes:

Original Title: «Satellite Photos of Mayan Ruins».

In the present document, the cause of the improvement with the presented images was

made by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.





69. The Earth a Dynamic Planet.

The Earth.

From VOA Learning English, this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in Special English. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. And I’m Christopher Cruise. Scientists who study the Earth tell us the continents and ocean floors are always moving. This movement sometimes can be violent, causing death and destruction. Today, we examine what causes earthquakes and volcanic activity. The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green landmasses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would.




Yet the surface of the Earth is not as solid or as permanent as had been thought. Scientists found that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea, floating on pieces of the Earth’s outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it moves toward the hot rock and melts. In the twentieth century, scientists began to understand that the Earth is a great, living -- and moving -- structure. Some experts say this understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The knowledge of the Earth’s constant motion is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents. This process is called plate tectonics. Earthquakes and volcanic activity are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the Earth’s surface moves, and how those changes cause earthquakes and volcanic activity. We Are Walking on Eggshells. Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a huge eggshell. They call these pieces tectonic plates. As many as 20 of them cover the Earth. The plates sometimes hit each other, and sometimes move away from each other. Because some continents are above two plates, the continents move when the plates do. The movement of tectonic plates can cause earthquakes and volcanoes. Modern instruments show that about 90 percent of all earthquakes happen along a few lines in several places around the Earth. These lines follow underwater mountains, where hot liquid rock flows up from deep inside the Earth. Sometimes, the melted rock comes out with a great burst of pressure. This forces apart pieces of the Earth’s surface in a violent earthquake. Some earthquakes take place at the edges of continents. Pressure increases as two plates move against each other. When this happens, one plate moves past the other, suddenly causing the Earth’s surface to split open. One example of this pressure is found on the west coast of the United States. Part of California is on what is known as the Pacific plate. The other part of the state is on what is known as the North American plate. Scientists say the Pacific plate is moving toward the northwest, while the North American plate is moving toward the southeast. These two huge plates come together at what is called a fault line.




This line between the plates in California is called the San Andreas Fault. It is along or near this fault line that most of California’s earthquakes take place, as the two tectonic plates move in different directions. The city of Los Angeles is about 50 kilometers from the San Andreas Fault. Many smaller fault lines can be found throughout the Los Angeles area. German Scientist Lead the Way. As we noted earlier, scientists began making major discoveries about plate tectonics in the 20th century. One of those scientists was Alfred Wegener of Germany. One hundred years ago, he proposed that the continents had moved and were still moving. Wegener said the idea came to him when he saw that the coasts of South America and Africa fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. He suspected that the two continents might have once been one, and then split apart. Wegener believed the continents had once been part of a huge area of land that he called Pangaea. He said the huge continent had split more than 200 million years ago. And, he said the pieces were still floating apart. Alfred Wegener investigated the idea that continents move. He noted that a line of mountains that appears from east to west in South Africa looks almost exactly the same as a line of mountains in Argentina … on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He found fossil remains of the same kind of an early plant in parts of Africa, South America, India, Australia and even Antarctica. Wegener said the mountains and fossils were evidence that all the land on Earth was united at some time in the distant past. Wegener also noted differences between the continents and the ocean floor. He said the oceans were more than just low places that had filled with water. Even if the water was removed, he said, a person would still see differences between the continents and the ocean floor. Also, the continents and the ocean floor are not made of the same kind of rock. The continents are made of a granite-like rock. Granite is made when hot, liquid rock cools and hardens under the Earth’s surface. The ocean floor is basalt rock, a mixture of silicon and magnesium. The German scientist said the lighter continental rock floated up through the heavier basalt rock of the ocean floor.




Support for Wegener’s ideas did not come until the 1950s. Two American scientists found that the continents moved as new sea floor was created under the Atlantic Ocean. Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said a thin valley in the Atlantic was a place where the ocean floor splits. They said hot melted material flows up from deep inside the Earth through the split. As the hot material reaches the ocean floor, it spreads out, cools and hardens. It becomes new ocean floor. The Americans proposed that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is moving away from each side of the split. The movement is very slow -- a few centimeters a year. In time, they said, the moving ocean floor is blocked when it comes up against the edge of a continent. Then it is forced down under the continent, deep into the Earth, where it is melted again. Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said this spreading does not make the Earth bigger. As new ocean floor is created, an equal amount is destroyed. The two scientists said Wegener was correct. The continents do move as new material from the center of the Earth rises, hardens and pushes older pieces of the Earth away from each other. The continents are moving all the time, although we cannot feel it. They called their theory “sea floor spreading.” The theory explains that as the sea floor spreads, the tectonic plates are pushed and pulled in different directions. The idea of plate tectonics explains both volcanoes and earthquakes. Many of the world’s volcanoes are found at the edges of plates, where geologic activity is intense. The large number of volcanoes around the Pacific plate has earned this area the name “Ring of Fire.” Volcanoes are also found in the middle of plates, where there is a well of melted rock. Scientists call these wells “hot spots.” A hot spot does not move. However, as the plate moves over it, a line of volcanoes is formed. The Hawaiian Islands were created in the Pacific Ocean as the plate moved slowly over a hot spot. This process is continuing, as the plate continues to move. Moving Plates Cause Violence. Volcanoes and earthquakes are among the most frightening events that nature can produce. They cause us to remember that the Earth is not as solid and unchanging as we might like to think. An American scientist says because of expected population increases, more people will die in earthquakes. And he thinks there will be more of what he calls “catastrophic earthquakes,” where large numbers of people die.




Thomas Holzer is with the United States Geological Survey. He and James Savage, another USGS worker, studied catastrophic earthquakes, in which more than 50,000 people died. The two men also estimated the total number of deaths over the past 500 years. They compared those events to estimates of world population. They found that the number of “catastrophic earthquakes” has risen as the human population grows. The scientists are predicting about 21 catastrophic earthquakes in the 21st century. Only seven such earthquakes took place in the last century. And they say total earthquake deaths could more than double if the world population grows to 10.1 billion by 2100. This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Christopher Cruise. Our producer was June Simms. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Original Title: «Earth is Always on the Move». New Title by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/earth-volcano-plates/1703187.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/earth-volcano-plates/1703187.html



70. The UN Celebrates Agriculture!

Sown Field. Hello and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning English! I’m Anna Matteo in Washington. On today’s As It Is, we will hear two agricultural stories that have something in common. The United Nations celebrates them both. The UN named 2013 the «International Year of the Quinoa». For 2014, they celebrate «The International Year of Family Farming». Many call family farming the main form of farming worldwide. We will hear more about that later in the show. But why celebrate quinoa? Why does a tiny, ancient grain deserve a UN celebration? Here’s agricultural reporter Christopher Cruise to explain.




Quinoa. When a grain becomes popular worldwide, there are two main effects. Farmers who grow the grain earn more in profits. And people who use it for food pay more. Quinoa, a grain native to South America, has become popular in many areas in recent years. In fact, the United Nations’ General Assembly approved a declaration making 2013, «The International Year of the Quinoa». Quinoa is a traditional food crop in the Andes Mountains. The plant grows in an area near Lake Titicaca, along the border of Peru and Bolivia. Historical evidence shows that local people were growing quinoa as far back as five thousand to seven thousand years ago. During this period, they used both the seeds and leaves of this wild plant. There are many kinds of quinoa. The plant can be grown in different climates. And it does not require a lot of water. Both the seeds and leaves can be used as food. The seed is the most commonly used part. Quinoa can be ground into flour or cooked whole. It is used in cereals, drinks and fresh salads. It can also be mixed with vegetables or beans for a full meal. The leaves and stems can also be used for medicinal purposes. Some people use them to reduce pain, heal wounds and even keep insects away. Quinoa is full of amino acids and minerals. Amino acids are organic compounds that form protein. The body needs them to help break down food, and to grow and repair tissue. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization believes that quinoa can be used to fight hunger and feed a growing world population. The reason is the high value of protein provided by quinoa. The crop has also become popular among those seeking healthier ways to eat. The center of the seed contains up to 45 percent protein. Quinoa is currently grown in more than 70 countries. Peru and Bolivia together produce 92 percent of the crop. The rest comes mainly from the United States, Ecuador, Canada and Argentina. Starting about 10 years ago, the popularity of Quinoa caused its price to rise quickly. Many Bolivian farmers have gained from this increase by earning more. They have been able to buy vehicles and other goods with the increased profits. However, other Bolivians have had to give up their main food because it costs too much. Instead they are buying and cooking with other foods that are not as rich in healthy minerals and proteins.




I’m Christopher Cruise. And I’m Anna Matteo in Washington. You are listening to VOA Learning English. Now we move on to another United Nations celebration. The UN has declared 2014 the «International Year of Family Farming». Family farms are the main form of agriculture around the world. But keeping a farm operating is not easy. Milagros Ardin reports.

UN Declares 2014 International Year of Family Farming. Family farming has been called the main form of agriculture around the world. The United Nations has declared 2014 the «International Year of Family Farming». The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says the year-long campaign is designed to increase public understanding of farms owned and operated by families. It says farm families are important producers of food for growing populations. But many family farms do not provide the same worker benefits as large company farms. Many family farms cannot provide retirement plans, health care or child care. So, the FAO wants to get family farming included in national policies that support agriculture. The goal is to create a balanced and equal environment so family farmers can succeed. Weather problems, price drops and weak world economies can hurt family farmers. For many, a single crop can mean failure or survival. It is difficult for many family farmers around the world to gain the land, water and other resources needed to farm. The UN has helped establish more than 50 national committees to deal with these issues. The committees are made up of representatives of family farm communities. Together, they decided on five goals to reach during 2014. One is to establish policies to make equal the rights of men and women farmers. They also want to guarantee that nations have the right to develop their own food production. The committees hope to require governments to accept and follow certain environmental guidelines. And, they want governments of mainly agricultural populations to provide financial support to farmers. Finally, the committees agreed to work to support young people in agriculture.




I’m Milagros Ardin. And I’m Anna Matteo. For more stories, go to our website at learningenglish.voanews.com, where you can also comment on our stories. And join us tomorrow for another As It Is on the Voice of America. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/un-celebrates-agriculture-quinoa-family-farms/1874922.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/un-celebrates-agriculture-quinoa-family-farms/1874922.html

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/un-celebrates-agriculture-quinoa-family-farms/1874922.html




The Flag of the United Mexican States.

«As we know already, in relation to the country Mexico, who has

two names: The same as ‘Mexico’, and, officially, as ‘the United

Mexican States’. Well, I consider and I accentuate that in that fact

exists charisma and power. Subsequently, it is a fact and is an

authenticity that the Mexicans must preserve».

M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.




71. What’s a GI Joe?.

Maritime Leadership Exercise. This is Phil Murray with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. We tell about some common expressions in American English. A “leatherneck” or a “grunt” do not sound like nice names to call someone. Yet men and women who serve in the United States armed forces are proud of those names. And if you think they sound strange, consider “doughboy” and “GI Joe.” After the American Civil War in the 1860s, a writer in a publication called Beadle’s Monthly used the word “doughboy” to describe Civil War soldiers. But word expert Charles Funk says that early writer could not explain where the name started. About twenty years later, someone did explain. She was the wife of the famous American general George Custer. Elizabeth Custer wrote that a “doughboy” was a sweet food served to Navy men on ships. She also said the name was given to the large buttons on the clothes of soldiers. Elizabeth Custer believed the name changed over time to mean the soldiers themselves.




Now, we probably most often think of “doughboys” as the soldiers who fought for the Allies in World War I. By World War II, soldiers were called other names. The one most often heard was “GI,” or “GI Joe.” Most people say the letters GI were a short way to say “general issue” or “government issue.” The name came to mean several things: It could mean the soldier himself. It could mean things given to soldiers when they joined the military such as weapons, equipment or clothes. And, for some reason, it could mean to organize, or clean. Soldiers often say, “We GI’d the place.” And when an area looks good, soldiers may say the area is “GI.” Strangely, though, “GI” can also mean poor work, a job badly done. Some students of military words have another explanation of “GI.” They say that instead of “government issue” or “general issue,” “GI” came from the words “galvanized iron.” The American soldier was said to be like galvanized iron -- a material produced for special strength. The Dictionary of Soldier Talk says “GI” was used for the words “galvanized iron” in a publication about the vehicles of the early 20th century. Today, a doughboy or GI may be called a “grunt.” Nobody is sure of the exact beginning of the word. But the best idea probably is that the name comes from the sound that troops make when ordered to march long distances carrying heavy equipment. A member of the United States Marines also has a strange name: “leatherneck.” It is thought to have started in the 1800s. Some say the name comes from the thick collars of leather early Marines wore around their necks to protect them from cuts during battles. Others say the sun burned the Marines’ necks until their skin looked like leather. This Special English program Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson. I’m Phil Murray. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/leatherneck-grunt-doughboy-gijoe-marines/1873092.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/leatherneck-grunt-doughboy-gijoe-marines/1873092.html

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/leatherneck-grunt-doughboy-gijoe-marines/1873092.html



72. How People Become Medical Doctors in the United States.

Doctors.

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we look at how people become medical doctors in the United States.




University of Massachusetts medical students study a body.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The United States has more than one hundred twenty medical colleges. The American Association of Medical Colleges says these schools have about seventy thousand students.

How hard is it to get into one of the top medical schools, like for example the one at Yale University in Connecticut? Last year almost three thousand seven hundred students hoped to get accepted there. Only one hundred seventy-six -- or less than five percent -- were admitted.

More and more of the students getting accepted to medical schools are women. In fact, at Yale, those one hundred seventy-six first-year students included more women than men.

VOICE TWO:

People who want to become medical doctors often study large amounts of biology, chemistry and other science. Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they try to get accepted to medical school.




Most people apply to more than one school. Some apply to as many as ten.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is changing the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT. Starting in January, the MCAT will be offered as a computerized exam only -- no more paper-and-pencil test. The exam is given throughout North America and also in countries around the world.

The number of test dates will increase from two a year to twenty-two. And beginning in two thousand seven, the number of questions on the MCAT will be reduced by about one-third. So will the permitted testing time.

Students may take the MCAT exam up to three times a year.

VOICE ONE:

A medical education can be very costly, especially at a private school. One year at a private medical college can cost forty thousand dollars or more. The average at a public medical school is more than fifteen thousand dollars.

Most students have to take out loans to pay for medical school. Many finish their education heavily in debt.

Doctors are among the highest paid professionals in the United States. Specialists in big cities are generally the highest paid. But there are also doctors who earn considerably less, including those in poor communities.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Medical students spend their first two years in classroom study. They learn about the body and all of its systems. And they begin studying diseases -- how to recognize and treat them.

By the third year, students -- guided by experienced doctors -- begin working with patients in hospitals. As the students watch and learn, they think about the kind of medicine they would like to practice as doctors.

During the fourth year, students begin applying to hospital programs for the additional training they will need after medical school. Competition for a residency at a top hospital can be fierce.




VOICE ONE:

Medical residents treat patients under the supervision of professors and other experienced doctors.

Most states require a person to complete at least one year of medical residency before taking examinations to work as a doctor.

Doctors-in-training are usually called interns during their first year of residency.

Medical residents get experience in different kinds of care. Interns, for example, may work with children one month. Then the next month they may be in the operating room. How long a residency lasts depends on the chosen area of medicine.

There are many specialties. Some people become cardiologists and care for the heart. Others become oncologists and treat cancer patients. Still others become pediatricians and take care of children. And some doctors go into medical research, either at a university or a biotechnology company.

But whatever they choose, first they need training. Some doctors spend up to ten years serving in hospitals before they are fully trained in a specialty. Surgeons, for example, spend many years performing operations as residents.

VOICE TWO:

A doctor in Chicago, Illinois, remembers that before his internship, he wanted to work in crisis medicine. But he lost that interest after he interned in a hospital emergency room.

He saw many patients who needed help immediately -- like accident victims and victims of gunshot wounds. One of the things he likes about the specialty he chose, surgery, is that he usually has more time to decide how to help his patients.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Medical residents do not get paid very much and have traditionally been expected to work long hours without much sleep. A young family doctor in the state of Virginia says she learned a lot as a resident. But she says she might have learned even more if she had not been so tired.




In nineteen ninety-nine, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies published a report on medical mistakes in American hospitals. The report said preventable errors resulted in at least forty-four thousand and perhaps as many as ninety-eight thousand deaths each year.

In two thousand four, the New England Journal of Medicine published two government-financed studies of serious errors made by interns.

The researchers found that the error rates in two intensive-care departments decreased when interns worked fewer hours. The interns made fewer mistakes when they had to prescribe medicines and identify conditions.

VOICE TWO:

Some residents, however, say they need extended time with patients to observe changes in their condition. And some say residents need to work as much as they can so they can become good doctors.

But in two thousand three, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education reduced the hours that residents may work. The council supervises the training of residents. Some residents were spending one hundred or more hours a week at their hospitals. They were often on duty more than thirty-six hours at a time, with limited sleep.

The new rules limit residents to thirty hours of duty at a time. And a hospital is not supposed to require more than eighty hours of duty in a week. In addition, interns and residents must have one day off in every seven. But some residents say the new rules are not being followed by all hospitals.

VOICE ONE:

Paul Rockey is a medical educator in Illinois who has worked for years with residents. He says residencies today are more difficult than before. Patients do not stay as long in the hospital as they once did. So Doctor Rockey says there is a lot of pressure on young doctors to learn quickly.

He says the difficulties of a medical education may be great. But, he adds, people also get great satisfaction seeing themselves gain the knowledge and skills to become good doctors.




VOICE TWO:

We have talked about people who want to go to medical school in the United States. What about those who already have a medical education -- a foreign medical education -- and now want to work here as doctors? Traditionally this has not been easy. States require foreign doctors to pass tests and finish an approved residency or other medical program in the United States.

To be accepted for a residency, a person must meet the requirements of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. This certification process involves several tests before a person can receive a visa to stay in the United States for the training period.

Foreign medical graduates may be required to return to their own country for at least two years after they complete the training. But because of doctor shortages or other needs, some have been able to get visas without the required two-year stay in their home country.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Bake. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.







73. Beyond 'Law & Order': The US Jury System.

JUSTICE.

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we take a look at the jury system in the United States.

(MUSIC)




VOICE ONE:

A listener in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, BatmunkhBuyantogtokh, wants to learn more about American juries. For that, we visit a courtroom that looks much like the ones in movies and TV shows like "Law & Order."

We are in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The D.C. Superior Court is the general trial court for the city of Washington.

This is the fourth day in the case of a man accused of assault with a deadly weapon. We could not bring in a recorder, but the courtroom is mostly quiet except for the lawyers, witnesses and judge talking.

To the judge's right, along the side of the courtroom, is an area where twelve people are seated. In the front row is a man with glasses who looks old enough to be retired. A woman dressed like a young professional sits behind him, listening as a witness is questioned. A man also in his twenties or thirties rocks back in his seat. His hair is cut on both sides of his head; down the middle stands a mohawk.

These three and the other nine people are the members of the jury.

VOICE TWO:

Each day, thousands of Americans are called to serve on jury duty. The idea of citizens hearing legal arguments might date back to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. But the modern trial by jury is a British tradition that colonists brought to North America centuries ago.

Laws on jury trials differ from state to state. But the United States Constitution guarantees the right to trial by jury. The Sixth Amendment establishes the right in all federal criminal cases. The Seventh Amendment gives the same right in civil cases that involve more than a small amount of money.

VOICE ONE:

The American system has three kinds of juries. The most common one is the petit jury. "Petit" -- p-e-t-i-t – comes from the French word for small. Petit juries can have as few as five or six members or as many as twelve. Twelve is traditionally the number in a criminal case.

Often a jury trial will last only a day or two. But some go for weeks or even months.




During a trial, lawyers for the opposing sides question the witnesses who testify. The lawyers also make opening and closing statements to the jury. At the end, the judge makes a final statement to the jury. The judge explains the laws that govern the decision the jury is asked to make.

VOICE TWO:

The jury then deliberates. The members meet in private, choose a leader and try to agree on a judgment. Most states require all the jurors in a criminal case to agree on the verdict.

Sometimes a jury is unable to reach a verdict. This is called a hung jury. The judge declares a mistrial. Prosecutors then have to decide whether to try the case again.

Juries decide questions of fact; judges decide questions of law. A judge may overrule a jury's decision in some situations, but that is unusual. Decisions by judges and juries can be appealed to higher courts.

Juries rarely decide sentences. An exception is when a jury is asked to recommend either execution or life in prison in murder cases punishable by death.

(MUSIC)

Scene of a Court.




VOICE ONE:

Under American law, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. Also, there is constitutional protection against double jeopardy -- being put on trial twice for the same crime. In mistrials, though, prosecutors may retry a case until a jury reaches a verdict.

The verdict is either "guilty" or "not guilty." Jurors must find a defendant not guilty even if they are not completely sure the person is innocent of any crime. Jurors only need to have a "reasonable doubt" -- a reasonable question in their mind -- that the person is guilty as charged. This is true for criminal cases, but civil cases are different.

VOICE TWO:

Individuals and organizations can bring a lawsuit in court if they believe they have suffered a civil wrong. Many lawsuits are settled without a trial. But if a trial is held, jurors are not required to decide "beyond a reasonable doubt." They must decide only that there is enough evidence to support the accusations.

The jury might also award damages. The money could be the amount requested by the plaintiff, the one bringing the action. Or it could be less. Or it could be more, if the jury wants to punish the losing party and set an example for others.

VOICE ONE:

A grand jury is bigger than a petit jury. The United States has two kinds of grand juries. The charging grand jury decides if there is enough evidence to bring someone to trial. If the jury decides there is, then it returns an indictment.

The second kind is the investigative grand jury. Officials often call this kind of grand jury together in cases of organized crime or suspected corruption by public officials. The jurors are asked to approve efforts to gather evidence, often secretly, to build a case.

VOICE TWO:

Some investigations in the United States are heard by a coroner's jury. A coroner is a local medical examiner. The coroner usually calls six jurors to a hearing known as an inquest.

An inquest takes place when someone has died under suspicious or unknown conditions. The jury is asked to decide the cause of death.




(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Courts choose people for jury duty from public records, like lists of voters or drivers. Some people are excused for health or family reasons, or because they cannot take time from work.

The judge and lawyers for both sides in a case question possible jurors. Lawyers try to choose those they think will be more sympathetic to their side. And they try to exclude those they think will be more sympathetic to the other side.

VOICE TWO:

Lawyers sometimes use experts to help them choose jurors. But jury consultants cost a lot more than most average defendants can afford.

In criminal cases, suspects who do not have enough money for a lawyer are given one free of charge to represent them. Critics of the criminal justice system, however, point out that public defenders are often overworked and underpaid.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Millions of people recognize the music from "Law & Order." But just how realistic are the trials acted out by Hollywood?

MELVIN WRIGHT: "I think people who watch T.V. get a false sense of what happens in real trials."

VOICE ONE:

Melvin Wright has been a judge for eleven years. He serves on the D.C. Superior Court. He says just choosing a jury even for the simplest trials can often take two or three hours.

VOICE ONE:

And he says programs like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" suggest that scientific evidence is used much more often than it really is. Judge Wright says the cost of gathering lots of scientific evidence can limit the use in real-life trials.




VOICE TWO:

In Washington, jurors receive thirty dollars a day for jury duty. Private employers are not required to pay workers for their time on a jury.

People called for jury duty at the D.C. Superior Court are asked to watch a video explaining the rules of jury service. They are asked to serve for either one day or one trial. If they are not chosen for a trial after a day, they are not required to return. The court provides child care for jurors with young children.

VOICE ONE:

Members of a jury can take notes during a trial. Some courts even let jurors ask questions. But there are supposed to be limits to how much information jurors may gather by themselves. Many courts are rewriting their rules to deal with the use of the Internet and mobile devices.

Judge Melvin Wright explains how the D.C. Superior Court handles this issue:

MELVIN WRIGHT: "We instruct jurors that they cannot during the course of a trial use Google or Twitter or any other electronic device to obtain information. Everything that they are supposed to learn has to come from inside the courtroom."

"The theory is this: If you talk to someone or you go to another source like Google to get information, you have gotten input from a source that the other jurors have not."

VOICE TWO:

Earlier this year, a judge in the state of Florida was forced to declare a mistrial after eight weeks in a federal drug case.

At first, one juror admitted to searching the Internet. But the judge questioned the remaining jurors and discovered that eight others had also gone online to research or discuss the case.

Jurors are not supposed to discuss a case with anyone else during a trial. But the rules are not easy to enforce when the jury goes home at night.

MELVIN WRIGHT: "There is no way we can monitor the activities of each juror twenty-four hours a day. So we have to have some trust that people will do what we tell them to do."




VOICE ONE:

American courts do most of their work without a jury. But legal experts say ninety percent of all jury trials in the world are in the United States. We asked Judge Melvin Wright what he considers the strengths and weaknesses of the American system.

MELVIN WRIGHT: "The criminal justice system relies on the testimony of persons and their ability to tell the truth. And sometimes people are honestly mistaken. Sometimes people come in and lie and people are convicted. So the system is not foolproof."

"But overall, it is in our view, the better system than anywhere else in the world because it gives average citizens an opportunity to listen to the evidence and make independent judgments the government is not part of."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Note: The images of this document were inserted by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2009/08/31/0045/





74. The Food and Drug Administration.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about America's Food and Drug Administration.




VOICE ONE:

The Food and Drug Administration affects nearly every American every day. The F.D.A. is an

agency of the federal government. It is responsible for enforcing the Federal Food, Drug and

Cosmetic Act and several other public health laws.

The F.D.A. is responsible the safety of most food products and medicines. It guarantees that

medical devices and biological products are safe and effective. It also guarantees the safety of

beauty products and the country's blood supply and beauty products.

The F.D.A. supervises feed and drugs given to animals in the United States. It also is responsible

for labeling -- the information included with products. All labels describing substances in a product

must be truthful.

VOICE TWO:

The F.D.A. has about nine thousand employees. They supervise the manufacture, import,

transport, storage and sale of about one million-million dollars worth of products each year. This

amount represents one-fourth of all money spent by American citizens each year.

The agency makes rules for almost ninety-five thousand businesses in the United States. F.D.A.

investigators inspect more than fifteen thousand manufacturing centers and farms each year. The

investigators make sure that products are made correctly and labeled truthfully. Often, they will

collect products for label inspections or testing by F.D.A. scientists.

VOICE ONE:

The Food and Drug Administration has several choices if a company is found violating any of the

laws the agency enforces. F.D.A. officials can urge the company to correct the problem. Or, they

can legally remove, or recall, a bad product from the marketplace. About three thousand products

are recalled in the United States each year.

In addition, F.D.A. investigators will seize products if they appear to be unfit for public use. About

thirty thousand shipments of imported goods are seized at American ports every year.




VOICE TWO:

The federal government has not always been responsible for the quality of food and drugs in the

United States. In the nineteenth century, American states were generally responsible for the

safety of locally-made food and drugs.

Then, Americans began pressuring federal officials to protect resources and set safety rules for

the nation. The Bureau of Chemistry was made responsible for the food and drug supply. The

chief chemist at the Bureau was Harvey Wiley. For more than twenty years, he called for a federal

law to protect the public from unsafe foods.

VOICE ONE:

Finally, in nineteen-oh-six, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act into law.

The measure became known as the Wiley Act. It banned the transport and sale of unclean or

falsely labeled foods, drinks and drugs.

In nineteen-twenty-seven, the Bureau of Chemistry was made into two separate agencies. One

was the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. Later, its name was changed to the Food and

Drug Administration. Today, the F.D.A. is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Since the Wiley Act, Congress has passed other laws to help the Food and Drug Administration

carry out its work. Yet, it has become harder for the F.D.A. to control medicines within the past

few years. One reason is off-label prescriptions. This is when doctors prescribe, or direct, patients

to take medicines for unapproved uses.

For example, some patients have been given antibiotic drugs to treat viruses, or anti-depression

medicines for pain. It is not uncommon for a drug to effectively treat more than one sickness. Yet,

the F.D.A. usually approves drugs to treat only one disorder.




VOICE ONE:

Recently, Knight Ridder newspapers investigated the issue of off-label drug prescriptions in the

United States. It found that the number of off-label prescriptions increased nearly one hundred

percent in five years. Off-label prescriptions are legal. Yet, the investigation estimated that at

least eight thousand Americans became very sick after taking drugs for unapproved uses.

Some officials blame drug manufacturers for the rise in off-label prescriptions. Sales people

representing drug makers give free supplies of their products to doctors. In turn, the doctors give

them to patients without knowing all the effects the drugs will have.

VOICE TWO:

The F.D.A. does not test drugs before approving them for public use. Instead, it depends on drug

manufacturers to prove the safety of their medicines. The manufacturers often negotiate with

medical schools or private research groups to carry out tests. Drug companies reportedly pay

millions of dollars to researchers for their results.

The companies argue that they own the information because they paid for the tests. Yet, drug

makers often are accused of only reporting findings that make their medicines look good. That

means the public may never know about tests that find a drug useless or even dangerous.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The drug industry gives the Food and Drug Administration millions of dollars every year to speed

the approval of medicines. Congress reached this agreement in the nineteen-nineties. Yet, critics

say this situation makes it difficult for the F.D.A. to effectively supervise the drug industry.

Doctor Richard Graham is a drug safety expert with the agency. Last month, he told a Senate

committee that the F.D.A. poorly supervised the approval of the pain medicine Vioxx. Drug maker

Merck withdrew Vioxx in September after a study showed that the drug increased the risk of heart

attacks and strokes.

Doctor Graham said his agency denied evidence Vioxx was unsafe. He also said the F.D.A. is

unwilling to admit possible safety problems with drugs that it has already approved.




VOICE TWO:

Some members of Congress are calling for an independent federal agency to supervise drug safety

after F.D.A. approval. The American Medical Association supports the idea. The group represents

doctors in the United States.

Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that drug maker Bayer knew

one of its medicines could cause a muscle disorder. Bayer withdrew the drug, Baycol, in two-

thousand-one. But the report said the company knew about the problem three years earlier.

VOICE ONE:

American lawmakers are considering measures that would require drug companies to publicly list

their tests. The companies also could be required to release their findings on the Internet. Such

possible measures led the drug industry to develop a plan of its own.

A trade group says it will develop a method for its members to list their test results if they choose.

However, some manufacturers oppose sharing details of their experiments because competitors

could learn trade secrets.

VOICE TWO:

The F.D.A. also faces problems controlling drugs from other countries. A new government report

says more than forty percent of all Americans use at least one prescription drug. Sixteen percent

are taking at least three.

The cost of prescription drugs is rising fast. A growing number of state governments have

launched programs to help Americans buy low-cost drugs from Canada and Europe. The states

argue that American drug prices are unfair and harmful to state-assisted healthcare programs.

VOICE ONE:

The F.D.A. says it cannot guarantee the safety of medicines from foreign markets. It argues that

some imported drugs may be not safe or effective. The Bush administration and American drug

companies also oppose foreign imports. But, the American Medical Association supports the idea

of imported drugs if the federal government can guarantee the safety of the medicines.




Some lawmakers support price controls on prescription drugs. Others believe such controls would

affect company profits needed for the development of new medicines.

These are just some of the issues facing the Food and Drug Administration. This influential agency

is expected to deal with these and many other concerns in the months to come.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. Our engineer was Dwayne

Collins. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal

Page:






75. Stopping to Smell the Roses, and Lots More, at the Botanic Garden.

the U.S. Botanic Garden – Washington City.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.

I'm Pat Bodnar.




VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the country. Botanical gardens provide a protected area for green plants, flowing plants and trees. They also are place for education and scientific research.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The thin green leaves of fern plants seem to reach out to welcome visitors as they enter the United States Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is just a short walk from the United States Capitol building. Plants from around the world grow there. Plants also grow across the street in the Frederic Auguste Bartholdi Park.

People come to the Botanic Garden to see its large collection of flowers, trees and other plants. It is probably one of the most beautiful places to see in Washington.

VOICE TWO:

From early April through early June, the Botanic Garden is presenting an exhibit that honors its beginnings. The show will recognize the United States Exploring Expedition. The expedition was a navy trip made for scientific research in the nineteenth century. Some educators say it was America's most important scientific naval exploration before the Civil War.

The trip began on August eighth, eighteen thirty-eight. At the time, a Navy officer named Charles Wilkes led ships from the eastern state of Virginia on scientific travels.

Wilkes commanded the flagship Vincennes. Five other ships started traveling with the Vincennes. Wilkes's group visited South America and the west coast of North America. It also traveled to Southeast Asia, the southern Pacific Ocean and even South Africa. The one hundred forty thousand-kilometer trip became known as the Wilkes Expedition.

VOICE ONE:

Artists and scientists joined the crew of the Wilkes Expedition. Crewmembers made fun of the scientists. The sailors called them insect catchers. But these insect catchers did important work. They collected more than sixty-thousand kinds of plants and birds.




Charles Wilkes also explored Antarctica. He described it as not just a big piece of ice, but a continent. Historians remember him as a great sailor and explorer.

After he returned, the Navy brought charges against Wilkes for striking members of his crew. He was accused of using severe beatings as punishment. During his life, Wilkes defended himself two times against charges in a military court. But he did not earn much love from his sailors.

The Roses in the Botanic Garden - Washington.

VOICE TWO:

The Wilkes Expedition brought the start of an international collection of seeds, birds and plants to the United States. They added to the richness of nature in the country.




The living plants and seeds were taken to a specially built greenhouse near the Old Patent Office Building in Washington. A greenhouse is a building with a glass top and sides where plants can grow in cold weather. Later, the plants were given to the newly formed Smithsonian Institution. The seeds became part of its collections.

The new Botanic Garden exhibit honoring Wilkes's gifts to America opens today [April 4]. A vessel fern in the Garden's collection will be among the objects shown. The plant with its thin leaves is believed to have developed directly from a fern from the Wilkes expedition.

VOICE ONE:

About a year ago, the Botanic Garden showed a much older kind of plant -- a Wollemi pine. The plant came from trees that existed in the age of dinosaurs. Until eleven years ago, it was believed that the last similar Wollemi lived ninety million years ago.

A special container protected the three-year-old pine tree while in the Botanic Garden. The loan of the pine was part of a cooperative program with plant and wildlife organizations in Australia. About one hundred Wollemi were found near Sydney in nineteen ninety-five. Only a few people know where the plants were discovered. Experts fear that people might harm them.

VOICE TWO:

Another unusual plant was shown at the Botanic Garden in July of two thousand three. Many thousands of people stood in line to see a rare flower from Indonesia. The Titan Arum opens every one to three years. Its flower lasts only a few days. While the flower is open, the Titan Arum smells terrible.

The Botanic Garden could have shown the flower longer. But experts decided that its condition was worsening. They thought the flower might have died by the next day. The Botanic Garden wanted to save parts of the flower to let it open again. So a plant expert was called in. He was asked to prepare the Titan Arum so it could be saved.




Other Scene of the Splendor of the Botanic Garden - Washington.

Workers cut away the parts above ground. But the lower part is in a sleeping condition. Sometime within the next several years, it will send up leafy parts. They will make food for the flower. That process is expected to provide enough energy for Titan Arum to flower again.

VOICE ONE:

Protecting and restoring plant life is important to the Botanic Garden. In June, the Garden is taking part in presenting a training program toward that goal. The Denver Botanic Gardens in Colorado is assisting with the program.




An organization called the Center for Plant Conservation will teach the genetics involved in protecting plants. It also will explore the science of growing flowers, fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. These plants include flowers like roses and trees like holly trees. Holly is known for its small red fruit, or berries.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

About four thousand plants grow in the Botanic Garden. Experts have placed the plants in different areas designed to meet their special requirements. Each area has different environmental needs for the plants growing in it. Light from the glass covering falls from high above. Modern equipment controls the temperature, water and other needs of each plant group.

The tradition leading to the present Botanic Garden began almost two hundred years ago. In eighteen sixteen, a cultural organization in Washington proposed creating a special garden. This garden was to have plants from the United States and other nations.

VOICE ONE:

Four years later, Congress established the garden of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. The plants were grown in an area west of the Capitol building until eighteen thirty-seven. The Columbian Institute stopped meeting that year. People in Washington, however, did not want to be without a garden. So a new greenhouse was built.

In eighteen forty-two, Charles Wilkes and his group gave two hundred fifty four living plants to the new greenhouse. A few years later, workers moved the plants into another structure. They were now on the land where the first garden had been. In nineteen thirty-three, the current greenhouse, called the conservatory, was built.

VOICE TWO:

The United States Botanic Garden offers a number of services to the public. The Botanic Garden answers requests about plants. It also holds special education programs. Many of these programs are free to anyone who wants to attend.

The Botanic Garden works with local and national garden groups and scientific organizations. It exchanges plants with them and helps them develop educational programs. And it holds special flower shows throughout the year. One show, for example, celebrates the Christmas holiday.




VOICE ONE:

The Botanic Garden continues to grow and change. A private group is raising money for a National Garden. It is being built just west of the Botanic Garden.

Several areas are planned for the National Garden. An Environmental Learning Center will offer space for teaching science and gardening. Visitors to the National Garden will also see many grasses, flowers and other plants native to the Washington area. One area will be filled with hundreds of historical and modern roses. A butterfly garden will have plants often visited by these colorful insects. Young visitors will be able to play in a children's garden. And, a water garden will honor the wives of American Presidents.

The United States Botanic Garden has existed for many years. It continues to prove that beauty and science go together.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Pat Bodnar. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2006/04/04/0045/





Washington State in the United States of America.

Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/wana.gif


http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/wana.gif



Washington D.C. - the United States of America.

Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/washdcna.gif


http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/washdcna.gif



76. A Visit to Two National Parks: Mount Rainier and Valley Forge.

Mount Rainier National Park.

I'm Shirley Griffith.

And I'm Christopher Cruise with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Today we tell about two areas that are popular with visitors to the United States. One is a place of fierce beauty. It is Mount Rainier National Park in the northwestern state of Washington. The other is one of the most important places in the history of the American Revolution. It is Valley Forge National Historical Park in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.




The American Indians who lived in the northwest called the great mountain "Takhoma." One tribe said it was a female monster that would eat people. Other old stories among the Indians said the mountain could produce huge amounts of fire.

In 1792, British explorer George Vancouver became the first European to see the huge mountain. He named it after a navy friend, Captain Peter Rainier.

Today the people who live in the northwestern city of Seattle call it Forge Mountain." Mount Rainier is almost 100 kilometers from Seattle. Yet it can be seen from almost any place in the city. The beautiful, snow covered mountain seems to offer the city its protection.

The mountain's offer of protection is false. Mount Rainier is not just a mountain. It is a sleeping volcano. Steam and heat often rise from the very top of the huge mountain, causing snow to melt. Mount Rainier is 4,392 meters tall. Its top is covered in snow all year. More than 25 thick glaciers cover a lot of the mountain. In some areas, these rivers of ice are more than one hundred meters thick.

Mount Rainier always has been a popular place to visit. Many people go to enjoy the beautiful forests that surround the mountain. Others go to climb the mountain.

Hazard Stevens and Philemon Van Trump became the first people known to reach the top of Mount Rainier. They reached the top in August of 1870 after a 10-hour climb through the snow.

In 1890, a young schoolteacher became the first woman to reach the top. Her name was Fay Fuller. For many years after her successful climb, she wrote newspaper stories asking the federal government to make Mount Rainier a national park. Many people who visited the mountain also wanted it to be protected forever by the government.

On March second, 1899, President William McKinley signed a law that made Mount Rainier a national park. It was the fifth national park established in the United States.

Today, National Park Service experts say about 10,000 people attempt to climb the huge mountain each year. But only about half of the climbers reach the top.

The mountain can be extremely difficult to climb. Severe weather is possible at almost any time. Snow and ice cover parts of the mountain all year. Many people have died trying to climb Mount Rainier. Mountain climbing experts often use it as a difficult test for people who want to climb some of the world's highest mountains.




Mount Rainier National Park.

Valley Forge National Historical Park.




You do not have to climb the huge mountain to enjoy Mount Rainier National Park. More than 1,000,000 people visit the park each year. Many walk on the hundreds of kilometers of paths. The paths lead through flat meadows filled with wild flowers and up through forests of large old trees. Other visitors drive around the park to experience its natural beauty. They often see black tailed deer, elk, and mountain goats.

The park is large. It is almost one hundred thousand hectares. Many lakes, rivers, roads, two hotels and six camping areas are inside the borders of the park.

Experts agree that Mount Rainier will become a very active volcano at sometime in the future. They say the real problem is that they do not know when.

Experts also agree that the great heat produced by an explosion of the volcano would melt the rivers of ice that are part of the mountain. This could happen in only a few minutes. They say the melting ice would produce flowing rivers of mud and rock. People who live in the southern part of Seattle and in the city of Tacoma, Washington would be in danger.

Experts carefully study conditions at Mount Rainier. They hope to be able to warn of any dangerous change. But for now, the great mountain provides a safe and beautiful place to visit in the Northwest area of the United States.

A very different kind of national park is in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. It is called Valley Forge National Historical Park. It is near the city of Philadelphia.

Valley Forge also is a beautiful place. Within the park are many different kinds of trees and flowers. Huge areas of green grass. And a beautiful, slow moving river. You can see many deer. Often you can come very near deer. The animals do not run away because they very often see people in the park.

It is not the natural beauty that made Valley Forge a National Historic Park. It is what happened there. Many other places were important in the American War for Independence, but no other place is so filled with suffering. No battle was fought at Valley Forge. Yet, more than 2,000 soldiers of the small American army died there. They died of hunger, disease and the fierce cold in the winters of 1777 and 1778.

It was also at Valley Forge that the men of this small army learned to be real soldiers.




What happened at Valley Forge began in August of 1777. A British force threatened to capture the American capital at Philadelphia. The American commander, General George Washington, moved the army to defend the city. A battle was fought at a place called Brandywine and another at Germantown. The British forces won those battles and occupied Philadelphia.

By the month of December, General Washington needed to find a place his small army could easily defend. He chose Valley Forge. More than 15 centimeters of snow fell only a few days after the army arrived. Ice covered the rivers. The soldiers began building very small wooden houses called log cabins. They built more than one thousand of these small houses.

The fierce winter was only one of the many problems the American army faced. Many of the soldiers had no shoes. Most had no winter clothing. All suffered from a severe lack of food. Then, several diseases struck. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery and pneumonia were among the diseases that spread through the army. Most of the soldiers became sick. Many died.

General Washington wrote letters to Congress asking for help. He asked for money to buy food and clothing. But Congress had no money to give him.

Several things happened to change the small army during that long and terrible winter. General Washington knew the army had been defeated in the past because of a lack of real training. A man named Baron Friedrich von Steuben had recently come from Europe. He was an expert at training soldiers. So, each day during the terrible winter, Baron von Steuben taught the men of the American army to be soldiers. He also taught them something very important. He taught them to believe in themselves.

As the winter passed, the army slowly changed. New troops arrived. New equipment arrived. An alliance with France brought guarantees of military support. The men who survived that terrible winter were no longer a group of armed citizens. They were well-trained soldiers who no longer feared the enemy.

When the American army left Valley Forge on June 19th, 1778, the soldiers took with them the spirit that had helped them to survive. The War for Independence would continue for another five years. Terrible battles were yet to be fought. However, the men who had survived the winter in Valley Forge knew they could win. They did.




Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Today, you can visit the area where Baron von Steuben trained the soldiers of the American Revolution. You can watch a movie about the American soldiers' struggle to survive that long ago winter. You can see examples of the small log cabins the soldiers built. You can walk on paths along the remains of the defense system and the officers' headquarters. And you can feel the spirit of Valley Forge.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page






Map of Mount Rainier National Park in the

northwestern state of Washington.

Source: http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/images/WebCam2011-08.jpg


http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/images/WebCam2011-08.jpg



State of Pennsyvania - United States of America.

Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/pana.gif


http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/pana.gif



77. Meridian International Center.

World Map.

VOICE ONE:

This is Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS.

Today we tell about the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. It is an organization that works to increase understanding among people from different cultures.

(THEME)




VOICE ONE:

Imagine what you would do if you traveled to the United States, but immediately became lost after arriving. Instead of flying to Washington State on the west coast, you accidentally arrived in Washington, D.C. on the east coast. This recently happened to a Greek woman and her two children. However, the Meridian International Center was able to help.

Meridian runs an information center at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. The family arrived there and recognized the mistake. A Meridian worker came to the rescue.

He called another Meridian employee, Hassan Rateb, who spoke Greek. Mister Rateb was able to reach members of the family living in Washington State. He then made plans for the visitors to fly there the next day.

The Meridian Center also helped the family find a room at a local hotel. The center even sent a representative to help the family get on the correct plane the following day. This kind of work is just one example of what Meridian International Center does for foreigners in the United States.

VOICE TWO:

Meridian International Center was established in Nineteen-Sixty. Since that time, it has become a leading organization in the area of cultural understanding. Its purpose is to increase international understanding through the exchange of people, ideas and the arts. Meridian Center serves as a door to the United States for visitors from other countries. Its programs and special training services provide foreigners with knowledge about life in this country. In addition, the Meridian Center supports educational programs for Americans who are interested in world issues.

One of the more popular programs operated by Meridian is an exchange between professional workers. This program brings people together from all over the world. International visitors working in government, business or education can meet Americans who do similar work to exchange ideas and information. These meetings help professionals expand their knowledge and develop lasting relationships. Each year, more than two-thousand international professionals take part in the exchange program of Meridian International Center.

VOICE ONE:

The center also offers cultural training for Americans preparing to work in another country. It teaches them the customs and traditions of the country. Foreigners coming to the United States to work or study can receive help in understanding American culture.




Meridian also runs an educational program designed to improve cultural understanding in Washington-area schools. This program is called "International Classroom." Representatives from foreign countries discuss information about their native lands with students. Often, the representatives bring things from their home country to the schools to show the children. They usually wear traditional clothes.

Earlier this year, Germany's B-M-W Group honored Meridian's International Classroom program with an award. The German car-maker also gave Meridian a financial gift to be used for more teaching about foreign cultures in schools.

VOICE TWO:

Meridian International Center also supports art programs and international art shows. The center works with museums and cultural organizations around the world to present foreign art in America. Many of the shows travel to museums around the United States after opening in Washington. The program helps build understanding and support for international art in the United States. The Meridian Center also sends American art to foreign countries for people to enjoy. Music, dance, literature readings, and other cultural events are also supported by the center.

Karen Jacob is the Communications Director for Meridian. She says the cultural programs run by the center are very popular. The public, she says, can learn a lot about a foreign culture through art.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Earlier this year, the wives of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spoke at the Meridian Center. They were in the United States for official visits with their husbands.

Missus Lee Hee'ho of South Korea discussed her family's efforts to support democracy in Korea. Missus Suzanne Mubarak discussed the position of women in Egypt. Both women spoke as part of Meridian's Professional Women's Series.

The center also recently supported an international committee that was investigating violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Former Senator George Mitchell led the committee. The international committee proposed measures to reach peace in the Middle East. Meridian Center worked with the committee in Washington, New York and Jerusalem.




VOICE TWO:

The center also recently organized a series of training programs to improve humanitarian aid to Iraqi refugees. Exiled people from northern and southern Iraq took part in the training. They represented non-governmental organizations working to help the refugees.

In April, Meridian opened an important show of Iranian art. The show includes eighty-eight modern paintings by fifty-four Iranian artists. It was organized with the help of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. The show is the first major cultural exchange of its kind in many years.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Meridian International Center uses two interesting houses as its headquarters in Washington … Meridian House and the White-Meyer House. John Russell Pope designed both buildings. Mister Pope was a famous American architect. In addition to Meridian House, he designed the Jefferson Memorial, the National Gallery, and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Meridian House and the White-Meyer House are on a national list of historical places. An iron fence, trees and beautiful plants surround the center for privacy.

VOICE TWO:

Ambassador Irwin Boyle Laughlin had Meridian House built in the early Twentieth Century. He purchased the land in Nineteen-Twelve, but delayed building the house until his retirement in Nineteen-Twenty. The building is filled with art collected by Ambassador Laughlin during his service as an American diplomat.

The ninety-year-old house still has the electric lift system, or elevator, put in when the building was first built. People who work at the center say the Laughlins had to run a wire from the city's street car system to power the elevator.

VOICE ONE:

The Laughlins' daughter, Gertrude, lived at the Meridian House while growing up. The house became hers when they died. In Nineteen-Sixty, she sold the house to a private group that worked to improve international understanding. The group later became Meridian International Center. Today, financial support for the center comes from public groups, businesses and gifts from individuals.




VOICE TWO:

The White-Meyer house is just next to the Meridian building. American diplomat Henry White had the house built in Nineteen-Twelve. Mister White was a good friend of Mister Laughlin. The two diplomats had planned to buy property next to each other.

When Henry White died in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, the house became his son's. Several years later, the owner of the Washington Post Newspaper, Eugene Meyer, purchased the home. The White-Meyer home became part of Meridian International Center in Nineteen-Eighty-Seven.

VOICE ONE:

A garden with trees and flowers surrounds both homes. There is also an area filled with water and rocks behind the buildings. The rock garden has become a popular meeting place for young and old visitors from many countries. They have gathered there because they have found the Meridian International Center opens the door to understanding world cultures.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Keith Holems. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.

(THEME)

The mp3 from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2001/08/22/0045/





78. Satellite Telephones.

A Satellite.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This is Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

A satellite telephone also pictured with its receiver.




And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about new technology that makes communication faster and easier.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Our report begins high in the mountains of northern California's Shasta-Trinity National Forest. A man and his son have reached an area called Little Mount Hoffman. It is more than two-thousand meters high in the beautiful mountains.

The two are camping. They carry all their clothing, food, water and other things they need on their backs. They have come to this area of the great national park to enjoy the outdoors.

VOICE TWO:

It is late in the day and both are hungry. They build their camp for the night and cook their evening meal.

After their meal, the man reaches into his pack and pulls out a special kind of telephone. It can be used from anywhere on Earth. It does not use wires. It links with a system of satellites in orbit high above the Earth.

Minutes later, the man talks to a business partner in Japan. They discuss developments that are important to their company.

A few minutes later, the young boy uses the telephone to talk to his mother. She is at home, in Miami, Florida. He tells her not to worry. The two of them are having a good time. He tells her he will call again tomorrow night.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Satellite telephones are not really new. But now they can be used anywhere in the world. Also, satellite telephones were once very large. Now, they are not much larger than any other small telephone. And, they are no longer as costly as they once were.

A company called Iridium produces a satellite telephone. It also supplies the link to satellites. The Iridium company uses more than fifty satellites that provide communications for their telephones.




Iridium and several other companies in the United States offer satellite telephones for less than four-hundred dollars.

Most satellite telephone companies charge money each month for the service. They also charge money for each call made on the telephone.

VOICE TWO:

The satellite telephone is without equal as an emergency communications or business tool. It is possible to link a satellite telephone with a computer. The computer can be used to send large amounts of information very quickly to anywhere in the world.

The telephone can also be linked with cameras and video cameras that can link with computers. People who travel to Tibet to climb Mount Everest use this kind of technology. These mountain climbers have made the satellite telephone an important part of their equipment. They often use these special telephones to send photographs and videos and to talk to family members from the highest mountain in the world.

VOICE ONE:

The satellite telephone is only one of many new telephones that have recently appeared on the market. Perhaps the most changes have been made to the wireless cellular or cell phone. A cell telephone is very different from a satellite telephone. It can not be used in areas that do not have the necessary receiving equipment.

New cell phones can send voice communications, color photographs and written information called text messages. They can even receive electronic mail. Like the satellite telephone, the newest cellular telephones keep getting smaller.

In fact, the N-E-C Corporation announced recently that it will soon market the smallest camera-equipped cellular telephone. It is eighty-five millimeters wide and only eight-point-six millimeters thick. It weighs only seventy grams. It has a color screen to show the photographs it takes and to show photographs that have been sent to it.

Critics of such devices say they can be used to take photographs of people who do not know they are being photographed. However this has not stopped the sale of cell phones equipped with cameras.




VOICE TWO:

Gartner Dataquest is a research company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recently, Gartner Dataquest reported that more than five-hundred-million cell phones were sold around the world last year.

This number is far higher than what industry experts had expected. The Gartner company says they expect more than five-hundred-sixty-million new cell phones will be sold this year.

VOICE ONE:

Cellular telephones have become extremely common throughout the world. You can see people talking on cell phones as they walk along the street. You can see others talking on cell phones as they drive their vehicles.

An Indian rocket




They have become extremely popular in Asia. In two-thousand-two, Business Week Magazine reported that India had fewer than eight-million cell phone users. However, the magazine reported that the market for cellular telephones in India was growing at more than eighty percent each year.

The magazine said India will have forty-four-million cellular telephone users by two-thousand-six. India is reportedly becoming the third largest market for cell phones in Asia after China and Japan.

VOICE TWO:

Communication industry experts say Americans spent about one-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars on all wireless communications last year in the United States. Wireless means communications devices that are not connected or linked to anything using a wire. This includes computers, cell phones, satellite telephones and other devices.

The experts say that by two-thousand-seven, Americans will spend more than one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars each year on wireless communication.

The experts say wireless communication will continue to expand in the future. They say people will use wireless communications devices to play games and send fast messages. They may also be able to watch movies with a small hand-held device.

VOICE ONE:

One company says it already produces a device that experts say will be part of the future. The device is called a Blackberry.

A Blackberry is a cellular telephone. It can also send and receive written messages. It has four different ways to send and receive electronic mail from the Internet communications system. A Blackberry has the same kind of keys as a typewriter to enter information. It has a memory that holds names and address information. It has a calendar and space for a list of tasks. It will immediately tell you if you have a phone call or e-mail message.

The Blackberry's cell phone can be used in almost any country. The newest Blackberry costs about three-hundred dollars. It costs about seventy dollars a month to be linked to the services that a communications company provides.

(MUSIC)




VOICE TWO:

Radio technology has also improved recently. Many people have problems listening to the radio while driving long distances in their cars. They lose the broadcast signal when they drive too far from a radio station.

Two American companies have solved that problem. They have made it possible to drive a car across the country and listen to the same radio station during the whole trip. The Sirius and X-M Satellite Radio companies broadcast their signal from a satellite in orbit.

The two companies provide more than one-hundred different programs. The choices include many kinds of music, like jazz, country and western, classical, hip-hop, rock and bluegrass. Their satellite communication system also provides news broadcasts twenty-four hours a day. The car radio that receives the satellite transmission costs as little as one-hundred dollars. Both X-M and Sirius charge a small amount of money each month for their service.

VOICE ONE:

Communications experts say satellite telephones, cell phones, devices like the Blackberry and satellite radio are just the beginning.

The experts say new cell phones permit users to watch television and to record and send video pictures. Still other devices will provide any kind of music on demand. These new devices are changing the way we do business, have fun and communicate with each other.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA.







79. Reading in USA.

The Reading and the Power of the Mind.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:


VOICE TWO:

And I'm Gwen Outen. This week our program examines reading in the United States.

(MUSIC)




VOICE ONE:

Americans have read a lot in recent weeks about a study. It shows that for the first time in modern history, fewer than half the adults in the country read literature.

A federal agency that gives money to the arts announced the findings. The National Endowment for the Arts is the official arts organization of the United States government.

The report says forty-seven percent of American adults read novels, short stories, plays or poetry in two-thousand-two. That was down ten percentage points from twenty years earlier.

The study is called "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America." The Census Bureau, the agency that collects facts about the population, did the study.

VOICE TWO:

Researchers asked seventeen-thousand people about their reading. The people could define literature however they wanted. It could be any kind of fiction, poetry or play. It could include works like love stories, mysteries or science fiction. The researchers compared the results with findings from nineteen-eighty-two and nineteen-ninety-two.

Women read more literature than men. But the research shows that men and women are both reading less and less.

Twenty years ago, people between the ages of eighteen and forty-four read more literature than any other age groups. But the new study shows an increasingly sharp loss of interest in reading among young adults. Researchers say the only people who read less literature in two-thousand-two were those age sixty-five and older.

VOICE ONE:

Dana Gioia

The poet Dana Gioia is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mister Gioia says all groups in America are reading less, and not just less literature. In nineteen-ninety-two, sixty-one percent of adults read a book. In two-thousand-two, it was fifty-seven percent. The average number of books read was eighteen. But some people read a lot more than others.




Among readers of literature, almost half read novels or short stories in two-thousand-two. Twelve percent read poetry. Four percent read a play.

(MUSIC)

Readers.

VOICE TWO:

"Reading at Risk" notes that the book industry in the United States now sells three times as many books as it did twenty-five years ago. In two-thousand the industry sold more than two thousand million books. Book sales are up. But the report shows that people are reading less for pleasure. And it says one reason is competition from technology.




The report lists how Americans divide their spending on things like entertainment. In nineteen-ninety, they spent six percent on audio and video recordings and on computers and software. They spent almost as much, five-point-seven percent, on books.

By two-thousand-two, five-point-six percent went to book buying. Twenty-four percent went to electronics.

But some people do use technology to listen to recordings of books or read electronic versions.

VOICE ONE:

In the words of Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts: "This report documents a national crisis."

VOA Special English to Readers.




Yet there are some who say Americans should not read too much into the importance of the warnings. Charles McGrath is former editor of the Book Review at The New York Times. The newspaper published a commentary in which Mister McGrath noted that the study dealt only with literature.

He said he regrets that the research did not include works of non-fiction. After all, he says, some books about facts and events are very important for the information they provide. For example, he says recent books about the war in Iraq are shaping national debate.

Also, Mister McGrath noted that the report did not consider magazines, newspapers or the Internet. And this literary critic criticized the fact that the people in the study could define literature any way they wished. They were told they did not have to include "just what literary critics might consider literature."

VOICE TWO:

While Americans are reading less literature, more are trying to write it. "Reading at Risk" says creative writing is one of the few literary activities that have increased.

And editors like David Green are trying to help people get their work printed. For many years, he has published a small magazine of short stories called Green's Magazine. Mister Green says it is costly to produce and mail four times a year. A few thousand Americans and Canadians buy it. But he says one reason he started the publication was to help beginning writers. He says it has always been difficult for new writers to find a publisher.

Today, though, writers who cannot get their work published by a traditional publishing company can place their work on the Internet. That way, people can read it online or print out a copy.

Some people who publish on the Internet are far from unknown. The writer Stephen King published "Riding the Bullet" online. It cost only a little money to read. But he suspended publication of his next online book, "The Plant."

Yet some television programs have influenced people to read. For example, Oprah Winfrey started a book club on her popular talk show. During the first Oprah's Book Club, she chose a current book that she liked. She asked people to read the book and then write to her show with their thoughts and opinions.

Oprah's Book Club had a big effect on the publishing industry. Publishers had to print more copies of books to satisfy demand. People who wanted to borrow copies from a library sometimes found several hundred others before them on the waiting list.




In two-thousand-two, Oprah Winfrey decided to drop the book club from her television show. Now, however, she is again suggesting books. This time, she chooses classics. Her choice of "Anna Karenina" made this Russian classic an American best seller. Leo Tolstoy wrote it in the eighteen-seventies.

VOICE ONE:

Many Americans form their own book clubs. Members might be friends from work. Or they might live near each other. Most groups read the same book at the same time. Then they meet to discuss it. Some people discuss books over the Internet.

Some book groups read only literary novels by great writers. Or they might read the works of only one writer. Members of a book club in the state of Georgia choose books of special interest to African Americans. Members of another Georgia book club each read different books. Then they give a report to the others.

Children belong to reading clubs, too. In Illinois, for example, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago has organized book clubs in schools.

Reading.




Children's book clubs can get help from the Great Books Foundation. This organization provides lists of books to read and also sells collected stories. It also trains people to lead discussions about the books.

VOICE TWO:

The National Endowment for the Arts says the move toward electronic media for entertainment and information is not good news for society. Its report, "Reading at Risk," says readers are more active in their communities.

The research shows that people who read literature are far more likely than non-readers to give their time to help others. They are more likely to support the arts. They are also more likely to attend sporting events. In other words, reading influences people's lives beyond just the pleasure that books provide.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page






80. Scientists Say Climate Change Is Real and Human-Caused.

From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News. I’m Katherine Cole. And I’m Christopher Cruise. Today we tell about a United Nations report on the environment. It says 2013 may have been one of the 10 warmest years since modern recordkeeping began. Then, we hear how levels of heat-trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere set a record in 2012. We also tell about a call by the World Bank to reduce some pollutants. The bank says the reduction could slow the rate of climate change, and save lives. Scientists say last year was among the hottest years ever on planet Earth. A United Nations report says 2013 was probably one of the 10 warmest years since 1850. That was the year when scientists began collecting temperature records.




The report was released in November at the UN climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland. Scientists at the World Meteorological Organization produced the report. It shows temperatures in different areas of the world. It also provides information about rainfall, floods, extreme dry weather, tropical cyclones, ice cover and sea level. Michel Jarraud is Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, the WMO. He says records show the Earth is warmer now than it was 10 years ago. “This decade, the last decade was the warmest decade on record and what we call cold years now are actually warmer than any warm year before ’98.” He also says levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases reached new highs in 2012. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. He believes that, as more heat gets trapped, temperatures on Earth’s surface will continue rising. The WMO report says surface temperatures are only part of the story. It says the water cycle of droughts, floods and heavy rains is also having an effect on the planet. Michel Jarraud says higher sea levels are making people who live near oceans likely targets for storm surges. This happened recently when a powerful storm, Typhoon Haiyan, struck the Philippines. “Near Philippines, the sea level rise over the last 20 years was probably of the order of three to four times bigger than it was globally. The factor on the sea level rise itself can be attributed to a large extent to the climate change, which has occurred. So, in other words, the cyclone itself it is a difficult question, but definitely because of the higher sea level the damage has been more than what it would have been 100 years before under similar wind condition.” The report says most of the world’s land areas had temperatures higher than normal in the first nine months of 2013. Australia had a very strong heat wave. Record high temperatures were also reported in parts of North America, northeastern South America, northern Africa, and much of Eurasia. The report says record-breaking rainfall and snow fell in many parts of North America. At the same time, extremely dry weather was a problem in the southern African countries of Angola and Namibia. People there experienced one of the worst droughts in the past 30 years. Some studies have found that a warmer atmosphere makes bad weather worse. Yet no single weather event can be linked to climate change. Richard Kerr is a writer for Science magazine.




“Beyond heat waves and heavy precipitation, heavy rain storms, heavy snow storms, scientists are being much more cautious about making a connection between typhoons or tornadoes and global warming.” As we noted earlier, the amount of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere reached a record high in 2012. The World Meteorological Organization says this will have an effect on climate change unless countries do more to limit the gases. The WMO says the warming effect on the Earth’s climate has risen by nearly one-third since 1990. It says the rise is mainly a result of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, like methane and nitrous oxide. The UN agency’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin blames fossil fuel-linked emissions -- mostly from carbon dioxide -- for about 80 percent of the increase in warming. It says carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grew faster in 2012 than the average growth rate over the past 10 years. WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud blames the increase in carbon dioxide levels on human activity, including industry, energy production and land use. “CO2 is a very stable gas, so it means that there is no sort of chemical reaction which would destroy naturally the CO2 from the atmosphere. So it stays for very long periods -- hundreds of years, or even more. And that is why, as a consequence, the actions we take now or the actions we do not take now will have consequences for a very, very long period.” The WMO says methane is the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas and to the possible warming of the atmosphere. About 40 percent of methane comes from natural sources, such as wetlands and termites. The rest comes from human activities. Nitrous oxide is the third most important greenhouse gas. The WMO says about 60 percent of nitrous oxide comes from natural sources. The rest is from human activities. Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are all breaking records. The report said the gas levels are now higher than they have been for over 800,000 years. Michel Jarraud says this is causing Earth’s climate to change in worrisome ways.




“We are worried not only about the impact on temperature, which is important, but also the impact on the water cycle -- more droughts, more floods in other parts of the world. We are worried about the impact on a number of extreme weather events. We are worried about the impact on the sea the level.” Mr. Jarraud says average temperatures may be 4.6 degrees higher than pre-industrial levels by the end of this century if the world carries on with what he calls “business as usual.” He says this would have harmful effects for future generations. He says even if all nations act now and stop producing carbon dioxide immediately, the effects of the climate change will be felt for centuries. A World Bank report is calling for action on a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the climate agreement that was in effect through the end of 2012. The report says Typhoon Haiyan is evidence that global warming is real. The storm was one of the deadliest natural disasters in the Philippines. It left nearly 6,000 people dead and more than four million others homeless. Rachel Kyte is the Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank. “This is not going to be a one off (one of a kind) event. The intensity and frequency of storms as a result of climate change is very clear from the climate science and the evidence and is something that many countries will have to prepare for.” The World Bank report examines the cryosphere, places on the planet that stay below zero degrees Celsius. It says temperatures in places like Antarctica and the Himalaya Mountains are rising two times as fast as in other areas. “We’re seeing catastrophic change potentially in these regions. If the ice of the Himalayas disappears, there are billions of people who depend on that ice cap for water and for livelihoods.” Many scientists are worried about carbon dioxide, which stays in the atmosphere for centuries. But the report calls for reducing pollutants that do not last as long. It says methane, for example, disappears after about 12 years. Black carbon or soot from open-fire cook stoves stays in the air for just days or weeks. Rachel Kyte says these pollutants speed up warming. She says acting quickly to reduce them can lessen their effect on the planet and save lives.




“Six million people today die every year from outdoor and indoor air pollution. So if we were to change cooking methods, if we were to clean up emissions from old cars and from diesel engines, we could save six million lives and we could slow the rate at which climate change is coming.” Those actions and others can give nations the time they need to make changes. Many scientists agree that by 2020, our planet will be about two degrees Celsius warmer than it was before the industrial revolution. That means there could be more severe weather and rising seas. Rachel Kyte says that is something that climate negotiators should understand. She is happy that a growing number of nations, including the United States, are trying to reduce short-term pollutants. “And those governments coming together with institutions like ourselves, the United Nations Environment Program, the International Cryosphere Association, but then also with civil society and the private sector saying, ‘We don’t have to wait for an international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions. We can take action now on black carbon. We can take action now on methane, and we can have a measurable impact in a very short period of time.’” Elliot Diringer is a policy expert at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. He says the Warsaw climate change conference did little to develop a new plan to reduce global emissions like carbon dioxide. But he thinks it provided a clue about what a new treaty might look like. He thinks the agreement will be one created by national politics, and less by decisions made by international negotiations. “Instead, this time countries will be setting their own numbers. And I think this is an important recognition that, in fact, the effort needs to come from the bottom up, that the agreement has to reflect the political will that is being generated at the national level, as well as the policies that are taking shape at the national level.” He also notes some hopeful signs: emissions trading efforts in China, the new climate law in Mexico and the Climate Action Plan announced by President Barack Obama last year. This Science in the News was based on reports from Lisa Schlein in Geneva and Rosanne Skirble in Washington. It was written by Christopher Cruise and produced by June Simms. I’m Katherine Cole. And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us next week for more news about science on the Voice of America.




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«Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more

important than any other one thing».

— Abraham Lincoln.




81. Memorial Day Honors Soldiers Who Died for America.

Memorial Day. Memorial Day honors all of those who have died in America's wars. But the holiday began as a way to remember soldiers killed in the Civil War. On May 30th, 1868, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Lines of simple white headstones mark the graves. The 80-hectare cemetery also serves as a burial place for people of national and historical importance. The cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington. Next to the burial ground is the Defense Department headquarters at the Pentagon.




A funeral with full military honors traditionally includes a caisson to transport the body. A caisson is a wagon pulled by horses. At Arlington, six black or gray horses pull caissons made in nineteen eighteen. A seventh horse carries the leader of the procession. Sometimes a horse without a rider also takes part in a funeral. The best known riderless horse was Black Jack. He took part in the funerals of presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The horse was named after a famous general known as “Black Jack” Pershing. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is perhaps the best-known memorial in America’s capital.

Honor Our Soldiers. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of a former soldier named Jan Scruggs. He fought in the Vietnam War. The war ended in 1975. Many soldiers came home only to face the anger of Americans who opposed the war. Jan Scruggs organized an effort to remember those who never returned.




In 1980, a group of former soldiers announced a competition to design a memorial. The winner, Maya Lin, was 21-years-old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Maya Lin designed a memorial formed by two walls of black stone. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in 1982. The walls are about 76 meters long. They are set into the earth. They meet to form a wide V. The names of more than 58,000 Americans killed or declared missing-in-action are cut into the stone. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They are looking in the direction of the names. Another statue honors the service of women in the war. Almost any time of day, you can see people looking for the name of a family member or friend who died in the war. Once they find the name, many rub a pencil on paper over the letters to copy it. Many people leave remembrances at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. One day, as crowds passed by, two young men left notes. A woman in her late 70s or 80s left a handful of red roses. After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Congress approved a memorial to Korean War veterans. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in July of 1995. It is near the Vietnam memorial. The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953. The memorial honors those who died. It also honors those who survived. The Korean War has been called the last foot soldier's war. The memorial includes a group of 19 statues of soldiers. The soldiers appear to be walking up a hill, toward an American flag. Artist Frank Gaylord made the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters tall. People who drive along a road near the memorial sometimes think the statues are real soldiers. On one side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial is a stone walkway. It lists the names of the 22 countries that sent troops to Korea under United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. Sandblasted into the wall are images from photographs of more than 2,500 support troops. A Pool of Remembrance shows the numbers of American and United Nations forces killed, wounded, captured or missing. The total is more than two million. Cut into the wall above the pool is a message: "Freedom is Not Free."




One of the lesser known memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is often called "the temple." The round stone structure honors people from the District of Columbia who died in World War One. The war was fought from 1914 to 1918. The memorial was completed in 1931. It is the only District of Columbia memorial on the National Mall. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to honor women in the military. The Women in Military Service for America Memorial opened in 1997.

Horse-drawn caisson leads a funeral procession at the Arlington National

Cemetery in April 2014. The memorial is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. It recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's wars. About two million women have served or currently serve in the armed forces.




Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall shaped in a half-circle. In front, 200 jets of water meet in a pool. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. Computer records contain the names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about 250,000 military women. The World War Two Memorial rises between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall. America entered the war after Japan bombed the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941. Sixteen million men and women served in the American military between 1941 and 1945. More than 400,000 died. The World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. It is built of bronze and granite. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. Except in very cold weather, water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. When the sun is just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent each of the American states and territories, plus the District of Columbia, at the time of the war. On two tall arches appear the names of where the fighting took place. One says Atlantic; the other says Pacific. Many visitors to the memorial served during the war. One visitor, a former Navy man, once said: "The only good thing about my fighting in the war was that I was too young to be terrified." A federal law passed in 2000 calls on Americans to stop for one minute at three o'clock local time on Memorial Day. The National Moment of Remembrance honors the members of the armed forces and others who have died in service to America. (This story is written by Jerilyn Watson and edited by George Grow) You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/memorial-day-honors-soldiers-who-died-for-america/1917728.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/memorial-day-honors-soldiers-who-died-for-america/1917728.html

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/memorial-day-honors-soldiers-who-died-for-america/1917728.html



82. The Power of Pausing, by Brian Tracy.

What do you think is the most important listening skill that all top salespeople use? All the top

salespeople ask good questions and listen carefully to the answers.

One of the most important skills of listening is simply to pause before replying. When the prospect

finishes talking, rather than jumping in with the first thing that you can think of, take three to five

seconds to pause quietly and wait.




Becoming a Master of the Pause

All excellent listeners are masters of the pause. They are comfortable with silences. When the

other person finishes speaking, they take a breath, relax and smile before saying anything. They

know that the pause is a key part of good communications.

Three Benefits of Pausing

Pausing before you speak has three specific benefits. The first is that you avoid the risk of

interrupting the prospect if he or she has just stopped to gather his or her thoughts. Remember,

your primary job in the sales conversation is to build and maintain a high level of trust, and

listening builds trust. When you pause for a few seconds, you often find the prospect will continue

speaking. He will give you more information and further opportunity to listen, enabling you to

gather more of the information you need to make the sale.

This is the salesperson's winning edge

You're a sales professional. It's what you were meant to be. Selling is in your blood.

But to keep moving ahead, it helps to have a coach, a mentor, a knowledgeable, reliable source

of new sales information. You need a practical, visionary guide - someone who's been there, who

knows where the sales field is today and where it is going. You need, quite simply, an advanced

course in selling taught by a master of the trade.

Carefully Consider What You Just Heard

The second benefit of pausing is that your silence tells the prospect that you are giving careful

consideration to what he or she has just said. By carefully considering the other person's words,

you are paying him or her a compliment. You are implicitly saying that you consider what he or

she has said to be important and worthy of quiet reflection. You make the prospect feel more

valuable with your silence. You raise his self-esteem and make him feel better about himself.




Understanding With Greater Efficiency

The third benefit of pausing before replying is that you will actually hear and understand the

prospect better if you give his or her words a few seconds to soak into your mind. The more time

you take to reflect upon what has just been said, the more conscious you will be of their real

meaning. You will be more alert to how his words can connect with other things you know about

the prospect in relation to your product or service.

The Message You Send

When you pause, not only do you become a more thoughtful person, but you convey this to the

customer. By extension, you become a more valuable person to do business with. And you

achieve this by simply pausing for a few seconds before you reply after your prospect or customer

has spoken.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take time to carefully consider what the customer just said and what he might mean by it.

Pausing allows you to read between the lines.

Second, show the customer that you really value what he has said by reflecting for a few moments

before you reply.

Source: free Newsletter of Brian Tracy.





83. Organizing a Business to Meet Different Needs.

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual proprietorship. The proprietor owns all the property of the business and is responsible for everything. This means the proprietor receives all the profits -- but must also pay any debts. The law recognizes no difference between the owner and the business. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls. There are limited liability partnerships. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits. But they also do not have as many responsibilities. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share the profits and risks of doing business. A husband and wife can form a business partnership.




Partnerships can end at any time. But partnerships and individual proprietorships exist only as long as the owners are alive. The most complex kind of business organization is the corporation. Corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. Corporations can sell stock to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company might use some of its earnings to pay shareholders what are called dividends. Or the company might reinvest the money into the business. If shares lose value, investors can lose all the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. A corporation is recognized as an entity -- its own legal being, separate from its owners. A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation. Corporations can have a few major shareholders. Or ownership can be spread among the general public. Incorporating offers businesses a way to gain the investments they need to grow. But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. There are non-profit groups that are also organized as corporations. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2006/03/03/0041/





84. Ready to Save Like There's No Tomorrow?.

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Are you a saver or a spender?

"A penny saved is a penny earned." This old saying calls attention to the wisdom of saving money. "Putting money away for a rainy day" is another way to talk about saving for the future.

People who hate to spend money are known as "tightwads," while those who like to get the most value for their money are called "thrifty." A thrifty person is different from a "spendthrift." A spendthrift is someone who spends wastefully. People like that are often said to spend money "like a drunken sailor" or "like there's no tomorrow."




In the United States, people who want to start a savings account have different choices of where to put their money. These include banks and credit unions. Credit unions are cooperatives for people who have some kind of connection. For example, the members might work for a university or a government agency. Most credit unions are nonprofit organizations.

Credit unions, banks and other financial institutions pay interest on savings accounts. But the interest rates are low. Certificates of deposit pay higher returns. With a certificate of deposit, or CD, a person agrees not to withdraw the money for a certain period of time. This term could be anywhere from a few months to several years. Longer terms, and larger amounts, pay higher interest. People can withdraw their money early but they have to pay a penalty.

Another way to save is through a money market fund. This is a kind of mutual fund. Mutual funds invest money from many people. The money is sometimes placed in short-term government securities. Money market funds, however, may not be federally guaranteed like other kinds of savings. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees savings up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

In a number of countries, people have been saving less over the years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a group of thirty-four countries. The OECD says in nineteen ninety, Americans had a household savings rate of seven percent. This year, that rate is expected to be a little more than four percent. Many European countries have higher rates, but Americans save more than families in countries like Japan and South Korea.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Shirley Griffith.







85. Choosing Between a College or a University.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. What is the difference between a college and a university? This is the subject of part three in our series for students who want to attend a college or university in the United States. Colleges and universities have many things in common. Both provide a greater understanding of the world and its past. Both provide education in the arts and sciences. And both can help prepare young people to earn a living. Students who complete their undergraduate studies either at a four-year college or a university receive a bachelor's degree. One difference is that many colleges do not offer graduate studies. Universities are generally bigger, offer more programs and do more research. Modern universities developed from those of the Middle Ages in Europe. The word "university" came from the Latin "universitas." This described a group of people organized for a common purpose.




The word "college" came from a Latin word with a similar meaning, "collegium." In England, colleges were formed to provide students with places to live. Usually each group was studying the same thing. So college came to mean an area of study. But a college can also be a part of a university. The first American universities divided their studies into a number of areas and called each one a college. This is still true. Programs in higher learning may also be called schools. The University of Arizona in Tucson, for example, has eighteen colleges and ten schools. They include the colleges of pharmacy, education, engineering and law. They also include the schools of architecture, dance and public administration. College is also used as a general term for higher education. A news report might talk about "college students" even if they include students at universities. Or someone might ask, "Where do you go to college?" Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal arts. These are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They include language, philosophy and mathematics. The purpose was to train a person's mind instead of teaching job skills. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with a report about online education. And international students can learn more about higher education in the United States at educationusa.state.gov. I'm Steve Ember. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2006/09/21/0041/





86. Five Labor Leaders Who Improved Conditions for American Workers.

«There are 1440 minutes in a day. Go run for 30 of Them».

Ideograma by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

ANNOUNCER:

Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English.




At the beginning of the twentieth century, American laborers often worked long hours for little pay. Many worked under extremely dangerous conditions. About five hundred thousand workers, however, had joined groups called labor unions, hoping to improve their situation.

Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about five labor leaders who worked to improve conditions for American workers.

(MUSIC)

Samuel Gompers.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen hundred, the largest national organization of labor unions was the American Federation of Labor. Its head was Samuel Gompers. Gompers had moved to New York with his parents when he was thirteen years old. He was twenty-four when he began working for the local union of cigar makers. He worked for the labor movement for sixty years.

VOICE TWO:

Samuel Gompers had helped create the A.F.L. in the late eighteen eighties. He led the organization for all but one year until his death in nineteen twenty-four. Gompers defined the purpose of the labor movement in America. He also established the method used to solve labor disputes.

Gompers thought unions should work only to increase wages, improve work conditions and stop unfair treatment of workers. He called his method pure and simple unionism.

Samuel Gompers sought immediate change for workers. He used group actions such as strikes as a way to try to force company owners to negotiate.

VOICE ONE:

Gompers was criticized for going to social events with industry leaders, and for compromising too easily with employers. But Gompers believed such actions helped his main goal. He believed if workers were respected, their employers would want to make working conditions better.




Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the labor movement won its first small gains. For example, the federal government recognized the right of workers to organize. That happened when union representatives were part of the National War Labor Board during World War One.

(MUSIC)

John L. Lewis.

VOICE TWO:

John L. Lewis expanded the American labor movement with a campaign he called organizing the unorganized. Lewis was the head of the United Mine Workers of America. He also was the vice-president of the A.F.L.

In nineteen thirty-five, Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the A.F.L. He wanted the C.I.O. to organize workers in mass production industries, such as automobile industry. The A.F.L. mainly organized unions of workers who had the same skills. But Lewis believed skilled and unskilled workers in the same industry should be organized into the same union.

Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in nineteen thirty-five. It gave workers the legal right to join unions and to negotiate with employers. John L. Lewis thought it was the right time to press the large industries to recognize workers' rights.

The A.F.L., however, decided not to support such action and expelled the unions that belonged to the C.I.O. In nineteen thirty-six, the C.I.O. began operating as another national labor organization. Lewis was its leader.

VOICE ONE:

John L. Lewis was an extremely colorful and effective speaker. He had worked as a coal miner and could relate to the most terrible conditions workers faced. More than three million workers joined the C.I.O. in its first year as a separate organization. For the first time, labor won many strikes and permanent improvements in workers conditions.

For many years, presidents, members of Congress, and business leaders considered John L. Lewis the voice of labor. And, American workers saw Lewis as their hero. By the nineteen fifties, the labor movement an established part of American life.




(MUSIC)

Walter Reuther.

VOICE TWO:

Walter Reuther was the vice president of the C.I.O. under Lewis, and became its president in nineteen fifty-two. Reuther believed unions had a social responsibility. His ideas were partly influenced by his German father who was a socialist.

Walter Reuther was trained to make tools to cut metal. He joined the United Automobile Workers union when it first formed in nineteen thirty-five.

VOICE ONE:

Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers for twenty-three years beginning in nineteen forty-six. He shaped the U.A.W. into one of the most militant and forward-looking unions. He held strikes to gain increased wages for workers, but, at the same time, he expected workers to increase their rate of production. He was the first to link pay raises to productivity increases. Reuther also was greatly concerned about civil rights and the environment.

In nineteen fifty-five, Reuther helped the A.F.L. and C.I.O. re-join as one organization.

Reuther's ideas were recognized worldwide. But they also brought him enemies. He survived three murder attempts. He said: "You have to make up your mind whether you are willing to accept things as they are or whether you are willing to try to change them."

(MUSIC)

A. Philip Randolph.

VOICE TWO:

A. Philip Randolph is known for combining the labor and civil rights movements. Randolph became involved with unions in nineteen-twenty-five. A group of black workers on passenger trains asked him to organize a union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.




Randolph was not a laborer. He was the college educated son of a minister. He published a socialist magazine in New York City. He was known as a fighter for black rights. Randolph strongly believed that economic conditions affected rights and power for African Americans.

For twelve years, Randolph fought the Pullman Company that employed the passenger train workers. In nineteen thirty-five, Pullman finally agreed to negotiate with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Two years later, the porters' union signed the first labor agreement between a company and a black union.

A. Philip Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters for forty-three years. In nineteen fifty-seven he became vice president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

Randolph used large group protests to change work conditions. He planned marches on the capital in Washington to protest the unequal treatment of black workers by the government.

In nineteen sixty-three, Randolph planned the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. At this huge peaceful gathering, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior made his famous "I have a dream" speech. Within a year the civil rights amendment passed guaranteeing equal rights for blacks and other minorities.

(MUSIC)

Cesar Chavez.

VOICE ONE:

Cesar Chavez created the first farmers union in nineteen sixty-two. That union later became the United Farm Workers of America.

Farm workers had been considered too difficult to organize. They worked during growing seasons. Many farm workers did not speak English or were in the country illegally. Farm workers earned only a few dollars each hour. They often lived in mud shelters and had no waste removal systems. Many farm workers were children.




VOICE TWO:

Cesar Chavez went to school for only eight years. But he read a lot. He was greatly influenced by the ideas of famous supporters of non-violence such as Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Chavez led his workers on marches for better pay and conditions. Workers walked hundreds of miles carrying cloth banners with the Spanish words "Viva la Causa" -- long live our cause.

VOICE ONE:

Cesar Chavez created a new strike method called a boycott. People refused to buy products of a company accused of treating farm workers badly. Chavez also publicized the dangers of some farm chemicals. Cesar Chavez improved the conditions of farm workers by making their mistreatment a national issue.

VOICE TWO:

Union membership has dropped sharply since its highpoint in the nineteen forties. Yet conditions for American workers continue to improve as employers realize that treating their workers well is good for business. The efforts of leaders of the American labor movement during the past one hundred years continue to improve the lives of millions of workers.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

This Special English program was written by Linda Burchill and produced by Paul Thompson.

Join us again next week for another People In America program in VOA Special English.







87. Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964: A Most Successful and Unusual Military Leader.

«A better world shall emerge based on faith and

understanding».

Douglas MacArthur.

ANNOUNCER:

Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about one of the most unusual and successful American military leaders, General Douglas MacArthur.




(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

General Douglas MacArthur was a most unusual man. He was extremely intelligent and very demanding. He expected his orders to be followed exactly. Yet he had problems all his life following the orders of those who were his commanders.

Douglas MacArthur was very intelligent and could remember things that others would easily forget. He could design battle plans that left the enemy no choice other than surrender and defeat. His battle plans defeated the enemy and saved as many of his own men as possible.

At other times, he would make simple mistakes that made him appear stupid. He often said things that showed he felt important. Many people made jokes about him. Some of his soldiers sang songs that made fun of him. Others believed he was the best general ever to serve in the United States military.

General Douglas MacArthur was extremely brave in battle, sometimes almost foolish. It often seemed as if he believed he could not be killed. He won every medal and honor the United States can give a soldier. However, at the end of his life, he rejected war and warned American political leaders to stay away from armed conflict.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Douglas MacArthur was born to be a soldier. His father, Arthur MacArthur, was a hero of the American Civil War and continued to serve in the army after the war ended in eighteen sixty-five. He became the top officer of the army in nineteen-oh-six.

Douglas was born on an Army base near the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas in January, eighteen eighty. He grew up on army bases where his father served. He said the first sounds he could remember as a child were those of the Army: the sounds of horns, drums and soldiers marching.

VOICE ONE:

There was never any question about what Douglas MacArthur would do with his life. He would join the army. He wanted to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.




The Academy is a university that trains officers for the United States Army. School officials rejected him two times before he was accepted. He finished his four years at West Point as the best student in his class.

VOICE TWO:

Douglas MacArthur began his service in the Army by traveling to several Asian countries including Japan, and to the Philippines, then an American territory. He also served at several small bases in the United States. He became a colonel when World War One began. He led troops on very dangerous attacks against the enemy. He won many honors for his bravery and leadership. After that war, he served as head of the West Point Military Academy.

He became a general. During the nineteen thirties, President Herbert Hoover appointed him chief of staff of the Army, one of the most important jobs in the American military.

In nineteen thirty-five, General MacArthur was appointed military advisor to the Philippines. He was to help the government build an army for defense purposes as the Philippines began planning for independence. He had retired from the army. He was the chief military advisor to the Philippine military forces when the United States entered World War Two in December, nineteen forty-one.

VOICE ONE:

Japanese aggression in the Pacific developed very quickly. Japanese troops began arriving in the Philippines on December eleventh, nineteen forty-one. The fighting was extremely fierce.

The Japanese were defeating the Philippine and American forces. General MacArthur had been recalled to active duty by President Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines to command American forces in the South Pacific. General MacArthur finally agreed to leave for Australia before the Philippines surrendered to Japan. But he made a promise to the Philippine people. He said, "I shall return."

VOICE TWO:

Military history experts continue to study General MacArthur's decisions during World War Two. He won battle after battle in the South Pacific area. Often, he would pass islands with strong enemy forces, cut off their supplies and leave them with no chance to fight. In nineteen forty-four, he returned to the Philippines with an army that defeated the Japanese.




VOICE ONE:

MacArthur was chosen to accept the Japanese surrender in September, nineteen forty-five. He was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the leader of the occupation forces that would rule Japan. As an American soldier, he had to follow the orders of the government in Washington. But in Japan, General MacArthur ruled like a dictator.

VOICE TWO:

The Japanese expected severe punishment. They saw MacArthur as a very conservative ruler who would make Japan suffer.

MacArthur did charge some Japanese leaders with war crimes. But he did not try to punish the Japanese people.

General MacArthur told the Japanese they must change, both politically and socially. He began with education. Before the war, female children in Japan received little if any education. MacArthur said education would be for everyone, including girls and women.

He said women must have the right to vote in elections, and be permitted to hold political office. He said Japanese women would now have the same legal rights as men. And he said that every person had the same legal protection under the law.

VOICE ONE:

General MacArthur told the Japanese people they were now free to form political parties. And he ended the idea of an official government religion. Religion would be a matter of individual choice. He also said the Japanese government would no longer be controlled by a few powerful people.

MacArthur told Japan it would now be ruled by a parliament that was freely elected by the people. He helped the people of Japan write a new constitution for a democratic form of government.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

On June twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Within two days, the United States decided to send armed forces to aid South Korea.




Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of the United Nations forces in South Korea. As the weeks passed, the North Korean army forced the South Korean army and its allies to retreat to the southern city of Pusan.

Many military experts said South Korea was lost. General MacArthur did not agree. He wanted to attack from the sea, deep behind the enemy troops at the city of Inchon. MacArthur said the enemy would not be prepared. Most other military leaders believed this would be extremely dangerous. American Marines did attack Inchon September fifteenth. It was a complete success. MacArthur had been right.

VOICE ONE:

General MacArthur often disagreed with political leaders. President Truman warned him several times not to disagree with government policy. General MacArthur continued to disagree and told reporters when he did. He often gave orders that were not approved by the president.

MacArthur called for a total victory in Korea. He wanted to defeat communism in East Asia. He wanted to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and block Chinese ports. President Truman and his military advisers were concerned World War Three would start.

In April, nineteen fifty-one, President Truman replaced MacArthur as head of the U.N. forces in Korea. Douglas MacArthur went home to the United States. It was the first time he had been there in more than fifteen years. He was honored as a returning hero. He was invited to speak before Congress. There was a huge parade to honor him in New York City.

VOICE TWO:

General MacArthur retired again. Some political leaders wanted him to compete for some political office, perhaps for president. Instead, he lived a quiet life with his wife and son. He died at the age of eighty-four on April fifth, nineteen sixty-four.

Today, many Americans have forgotten Douglas MacArthur. However, the people of the Philippines built a statue to honor him for keeping his promise to return. And, many Japanese visitors go to General MacArthur's burial place in Norfolk, Virginia to remember what he did for Japan.

(MUSIC)




ANNOUNCER:

This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2009/05/24/0045/





88. Coast Guard Honors Partnership with VOA.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Courier is show here in July 1963 on station off

Rhodes, Greece.

Most Americans may have never heard about a Coast Guard ship called the USS Courier. The

Courier also may be unfamiliar to people in Eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union. But

between 1952 and 1964, the ship floated near the Greek island of Rhodes. During that period, it

broadcast thousands of hours of Voice of America programs to the Soviet Union and its allies.

Since then, people who served on the ship have held anniversary reunions to celebrate their

work. Recently, they gathered at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London,

Connecticut. The Academy has an exhibit honoring the Courier.

“In the battle against Communism, the Courier, a ship without guns, goes into battle armed with

the greatest weapon on all: truth!”




Map of Italy and Greece.

Rhodes is a city on the island of the same name, located in Greece.




Cold War newsreel reports about the partnership between VOA and the Coast Guard sound dated

to some people. But the struggle between the Soviet Union and Western countries was very

real. Bob Marriott was part of the USS Courier’s Coast Guard crew.

“We were real proud of our job. We got through to people that couldn’t hear the truth and we

kept working to get that message across and it made us feel good to know that they got the truth

from somewhere, that in their native countries was censored.”

In addition to news, listeners could enjoy VOA’s cultural and music programs.

Music great Louis Armstrong made this station identification on VOA’s Jazz Hour program with

Willis Conover.

“This is the Voice of America, Washington, D.C.”

The USS Courier had broadcast equipment that was more powerful than land-based radio stations

at the time.

The Soviet Union worked hard to “jam” or interfere with the broadcasts. Bob Marriott says

making sure VOA had a clear signal was, in his words, like playing a game of “cat and mouse.”

“We were matching our wits against the guy in Russia that was trying to jam us. And we took

pride in having a couple extra frequencies available so that when he lined up on our frequency,

on that particular receiver, we clicked him off and got another one and kept the program

going. We were the tip of the bayonet. It felt real good.”

Unlike most military ships, the Courier did not carry heavy weaponry. Navy ships would come to

its aid if there was a need.

Maria Lowther was born in Greece. She moved to Rhodes as a refugee and later married a

member of the US Coast Guard. She says the Courier, its VOA crews and their money were

important to the economy of the island.




“We did not have enough money to have food on the table. And all of a sudden, the ship appears,

and the money started flowing. But above all, it was the dignity of the people that was saved. The

American spirit was absolutely unbelievable.”

The families of Coast Guard and VOA employees lived on Rhodes, and became friends with the

islanders.

The father of Denise Clemens served as an engineer on the Courier. She remembers growing up

on the island and getting a lot of attention from a young Greek man.

“I had a boy who was crazy about me and that was because of those VOA broadcasts because he

wanted a ticket to America. And he decided I was his ticket. And so every time I would walk

anywhere, he’d be riding his bicycle around and around singing, ‘You Are My Destiny,’ by Paul

Anka, at the top of his lungs. He might not know any other English, but he knew those words.”

That boy never did marry Denise Clemens.

For their part, the U.S. Coast Guardsmen and their families consider themselves winners many

times over. Many of them truly enjoy the Coast Guard Academy exhibit about the Courier. As

one former officer said of the show: “It almost makes you cry. We made lifelong friends and

comrades, and we helped win the Cold War without firing a shot. Not bad. Not bad at all.”

This report was based on a story from VOA reporter Adam Phillips.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/article/1947693.html


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/article/1947693.html



89. Songs About American Cities.

New York.

(Theme)

VOICE 1:

Most Americans have a city they like best. It may be the city they were born in. It may be the city they would like to call home. Over the years, American songwriters have described these feelings in music.

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE 2:

And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of songs about American cities is our report today on the VOA Special English program, this is America.

("New York, New York"/Frank Sinatra)





VOICE 1:

"New York, New York." More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city. More than eight-million people live in New York. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York.

(MUSIC)

Chicago, Illinois.

VOICE 2:

Almost three-million people live in the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third-largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago."

(MUSIC)




VOICE 1:

Near Chicago is the small industrial city of Gary, Indiana. This city was made famous by a song in a musical play called "The Music Man." The play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen-fifty-seven. In the musical, a young boy sings about his home town. Here, Eddie Hodges sings "Gary, Indiana."

(MUSIC)

Gary, Indiana.

VOICE 2:

Right in the middle of America is the city of Kansas City. It is the largest city in the state of Missouri. In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber [lee-ber] and Mike Stoller [stole-er] wrote about going to Kansas City. Why? Because they said it was filled with many wonderful women. James Brown sings the song, "Kansas City."

(MUSIC)




Kansas City.

Miami, Florida.




VOICE 1:

Americans love cities near the ocean. One of the most popular is Miami, Florida. Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm. This song about Miami was written in nineteen-thirty-five. The Hot Mustard Jazz Band sings, "Moon Over Miami."

(MUSIC)

VOICE 2:

One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. There you can play games of chance all night long. The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too. In nineteen-sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group Z-Z Top.

(MUSIC)

Las Vegas, Nevada.




San Francisco, California.

Los Angeles, CA.




VOICE 1:

One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen-sixty-two. It sold more than three-million records.

(MUSIC)

VOICE 2:

Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second-largest city. More than three-million people live there. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song, "I Love L.A."

San Jose, California




(MUSIC)

VOICE 1:

Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They call Los Angeles "a great big freeway." They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"

(MUSIC)

VOICE 2:

Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE 1:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America.

("New York, New York"/Peter Nero instrumental)







90. On the Great Lakes, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and More.

The Great Lakes - Between USA and Canada.

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

This week, we tell about the biggest system of freshwater lakes in the world, the Great Lakes between the United States and Canada. They are busy shipping paths. They are also known for fierce and deadly storms. Today, we tell about the lakes and some famous shipwrecks.

(MUSIC)




VOICE ONE:

Even before European explorers first saw the Great Lakes, they provided Native Americans with a way to transport goods. Probably the first European to see and explore the Great Lakes was Frenchman Etienne Brule in the early sixteen hundreds. He lived among the Huron Indians. All but one of the Great Lakes has a name from Native American languages: Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. The biggest lake, Superior, was named by the French. But the Ojibwe Indians knew it as Gitchigumi, or "big water."

A boat entering the Soo Locks

Observation: on the end of this document you have the maps of the lakes.




VOICE TWO:

The Great Lakes are part of a waterway that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the center of North America. Ships can enter the Saint Lawrence River on the east coast of Canada and travel to Chicago, Illinois or Duluth, Minnesota.

Vessels on the Great Lakes are not called ships, but boats. However, boats on the lakes can be huge. The newest of the lake freighters is over three hundred meters long.

The Griffin was the one of the first sailing vessel on the Great Lakes and also among the first shipwrecks. French explorer and trader Rene-Robert Cavelier De La Salle, built it in sixteen seventy-nine. The boat set sail from an island in northern Lake Michigan. La Salle reached what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. He sent the boat back home with a load of animal fur. No one ever saw the Griffin again. The loss of the Griffin established a long tradition of danger and mystery linked to Great Lakes travel.

VOICE ONE:

Trade on the lakes increased. Soon, settlers came to the area. They grew crops and harvested wood, sending products to markets by boat. Then, expanding communities needed coal which was also shipped.

In the eighteen forties, iron ore was discovered in the Marquette Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Iron ore, the main raw material of steel, changed the lakes area and the nation.

In eighteen fifty-five, the first canal connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron was completed at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The Soo Locks linked iron mines near Lake Superior with the cities of Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois. Today, the Soo Locks are the world's busiest.

VOICE TWO:

Passenger travel also grew on the Great Lakes. Big steamboats carried hundreds of people between cities. But the threat of fire came with the new steam technology. The worst fire disaster happened on Lake Erie in eighteen fifty.

The G.P. Griffith was traveling from Buffalo, New York to Chicago with about three hundred men, women and children. Many were immigrants from England, Ireland and Germany.




Not far east of Cleveland, a fire broke out. As the flames spread, passengers and crew panicked. More than a hundred people jumped into the lake and drowned. Others burned. Only a few strong swimmers survived. But not a single child and only one woman was saved.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

With thousands of boats on the lakes, collisions became a real danger. The deadliest took place in eighteen sixty in southern Lake Michigan. The steamer Lady Elgin was carrying passengers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Chicago to hear a speech by Democratic presidential candidate Stephen Douglas. As many as five to six hundred people were on board, many of Irish ancestry.

A storm blew up on the return trip to Milwaukee. The Augusta, a boat carrying wood, was sailing south at high speed. It struck the Lady Elgin. But the Augusta's Captain D.M. Malott continued on to Chicago, failing to help victims on the passenger boat.

Captain Jack Wilson struggled to save the Lady Elgin. But the boat soon sank. Hundreds of passengers struggled to hold on to the floating wreckage. Powerful waves crashing against a rocky coast drowned many people. The captain fought to save as many people as he could until he too was lost.

Northwestern University student Edward Spencer was another hero. He swam from shore and rescued seventeen people. The wreck of the Lady Elgin remains the worst loss of life on open water in the Great Lakes. Recent studies say four hundred or more people died that night.

VOICE TWO:

As the nation's need for steel grew, bigger ships were built to carry iron ore. They sailed on the lakes until late November. Shipping in the upper Great Lakes mostly stops in late fall because of ice. But November storms can be deadly.

The worst weather disaster on the lakes happened in nineteen thirteen. The early November winds reached hurricane force and caused waves eleven meters high. By the time the storm eased, eight big boats were lost on Lake Huron alone. They included the Canadian freighter James Carruthers which disappeared with twenty-two men. Its wreck has never been found. The storm, sometimes called the "Big Blow," killed more than two hundred fifty people.




VOICE ONE:

Some of the biggest boats to ever sail the lakes have been lost in sudden November storms. In nineteen fifty-eight, the Carl D. Bradley was heading home at the end of the shipping season. It first launched thirty years before. At the time, it was the biggest boat on the Lakes. But during a storm on Lake Michigan, the Bradley split in two. Only two of its crew of thirty-five survived.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was launched the same year the Bradley sank. The Fitzgerald was two hundred twenty meters long. It was the biggest boat on the lakes when it entered service. It would become the most famous shipwreck of all.

Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot told the story of the tragedy in "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

On November tenth, nineteen seventy-five, the Fitzgerald was sailing on Lake Superior. It was struggling through a dangerous storm that the old sailors called a "November witch." It had lost its radar and the old lighthouse at Whitefish Point, Michigan was not operating.

Captain Ernest McSorley radioed another freighter, the Arthur Anderson, that his boat was taking on water. He was making for the safety of Whitefish Bay. But that night the weather got worse. The Anderson reported winds of about one hundred forty kilometers an hour and waves ten meters high.

Captain McSorley told the Anderson: "We are holding our own." But that was the last anyone heard from the Edmund Fitzgerald. The boat and twenty-nine men disappeared into Lake Superior minutes later.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Tom Farnquist is executive director of the Great Lakes Historical Shipwreck Society. In nineteen ninety-five, he was part of an effort to recover the Fitzgerald's bell. The bronze bell is now preserved at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan. Each year on November tenth, a ceremony is held there to remember the crew members of the Fitzgerald.




Tom Farnquist knows as much about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes as anyone.

TOM FARNQUIST: "The lakes are very treacherous. There's over six thousand and some estimate as high as anywhere to ten to twelve thousand shipwrecks on the Great Lakes."

VOICE TWO:

Today, thousands of people dive at shipwreck preserves all around the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Historical Shipwreck Society works to preserve and explain the history and importance of the area's wrecks. The group was established in nineteen seventy-eight. It has grown to over one thousand seven hundred members.

Each year, tens of thousands of people visit the shipwreck museum at Whitefish Point. Great Lakes shipwrecks continue to capture the imagination of Americans from all over the country.

Tom Farnquist says shipwrecks are exciting because they preserve a detailed picture of maritime life that can be hundreds of years old. He says Lake Superior may be one of the most interesting places for this kind of exploration.

TOM FARNQUIST: "It's quite a cross-section of American maritime history frozen in time on the Great Lakes. There's probably the best selection of shipwrecks anywhere in the world waiting to be found in Lake Superior."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.







Map of the Great Lakes.

Source: http://www.epa.gov/emfjulte/images/data/greatlak.gif

Source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/greatlk.jpg


http://www.epa.gov/emfjulte/images/data/greatlak.gif

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/greatlk.jpg




«The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed,

a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting

to be released and channeled toward some great good».

Brian Tracy.




91. Hindi or English? The Politics of Language.

India in the World.

Choosing an official national language can be difficult, at times even dangerous. This is especially

true for countries that have many languages and a colonial past. Like India, for example.

In India, deciding whether to use English or Hindi includes issues of social standing, history,

nationalism and even geography. It is a socio-political- geo-lingua debate. It is the Politics of

Language.




Hindi or English

The question of whether to use English or Hindi is filled with India’s colonial history and class

struggle. And India is again debating the issue. New government leadership is moving toward

making Hindi the official language of government communications.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi prefers to use Hindi. Since taking office, Mr. Modi uses mostly

Hindi when speaking in parliament and with Indian officials or foreign leaders.

Neerja Chowdhury is an independent political analyst. She says Mr. Modi is the son of a poor tea

seller. He has “come through the ranks,” or worked his way up in life.

“But Mr. Modi, he is representing a different India. He has also come through the ranks, you

know, ((and through)) his humble beginnings, and he has made his way up. So this is the language

of comfort for him in so far as expression goes.”

No one questions the prime minister’s personal language choice. However, many criticize his plan

to make English second to Hindi when it comes to the working language of government.

Hindi is widely spoken in the north. The north is also the power center of the ruling Bharatiya

Janata Party. The southern and eastern states in India have always chosen among local languages

or English. About fifty years ago efforts to make Hindi the country’s only official language caused

violent riots in the south.

Perhaps wanting to avoid repeating that mistake, Prime Minister Modi showed that he has no

problem with the English language. After watching the launch of a satellite in the southern

Andhra Pradesh state, Mr. Modi surprised many by making his first speech in English since

becoming prime minister.

“My congratulations to brilliant space scientists and the Department of Space for yet another

successful launch of the Polar satellite.”

Some political observers say that was an intelligent move to calm the south, where many of the

scientists call home. But officials in New Delhi continue to be under pressure to use Hindi. And

many are clearly unhappy about that.




India’s upper middle class includes many senior, or top, government officials. They grew up mostly

speaking English in their homes and in school.

They can speak Hindi. But their written communication skills are often poor. So, to keep in step

with the Prime Minister, many are trying to quickly improve their Hindi.

But critics say it is English that connects this diverse country. Neerja Chowdhury says it is a

question of progress in today’s widening world.

“The world is moving on. Look at the way the Chinese are learning English. And why

should we give up a natural advantage that we have had all these years?”

The debate will most likely continue as Prime Minister Modi and the BJP try to establish a Hindu

nationalist party with a growing middle class. And these people may not know English as well as

they know Hindi.

I’m Anna Matteo.

Do have any stories of language politics where you live? Do accents or dialects play a part in social

status? Let us know in our comment section.

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Map of India, and Asia.




92. Books by Four Authors Living in United States Carry Us Across Borders.

«Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great

discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement».

— Claude M. Bristol.

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Shep O'Neal.

Books about the immigrant experience act as a bridge between cultures. They carry readers across borders and help them experience the lives of people different from themselves.




This week, our program looks at the lives of four writers in the United States who have strong ties to Latin America and the Caribbean. They are Isabel Allende, Francisco Goldman, Jamaica Kincaid and Sandra Cisneros.

(MUSIC)

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende is one of the most popular immigrant writers from South America.

She has written many books for adults and children. One of her most successful was her first book, "The House of Spirits." Mizz Allende based it on memories of her family and the political crises in Chile where she grew up.

Isabel Allende was born in nineteen forty-two in Lima, Peru. Her father was a Chilean diplomat there. But her parents ended their marriage when she was three years old.

After her school years, Isabel Allende got married and worked as a reporter for a magazine and for television. Then in nineteen seventy-three her uncle, the president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was murdered in a military overthrow.




In nineteen seventy-five Isabel Allende and her family fled to Venezuela. She based "The House of Spirits" on a letter that she wrote to her grandmother who was dying. The book shows the world from the view of women who suffer but survive the problems they face. Some of Mizz Allende's other books also deal with this issue.

VOICE ONE:

Isabel Allende has lived in a number of countries around the world. Her marriage ended in divorce. A year later, she married a man she had met while in the United States to talk about one of her books. That was in nineteen eighty-eight; they have lived in Northern California ever since.

After a few years in the United States, Mizz Allende wrote a book called "The Infinite Plan." The story is about an American man. It is set in the United States. "The Infinite Plan" was very different from her other books, which were mostly set in South America. At least one book critic noted with praise for Mizz Allende that not many immigrants write about natives of their new country. But she still writes in Spanish.

Isabel Allende says she always considered herself a Latin American. But, as she told the New York Times, the terrorist attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one, changed her feelings about her identity.

She describes these feelings in her two thousand three book, "My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey through Chile." Although she is now an American citizen, Mizz Allende says, "My heart isn't divided; it has merely grown larger."

(MUSIC)




VOICE TWO:

Francisco Goldman

Another American writer with strong links to another country is Francisco Goldman. He was born in nineteen fifty-four. He grew up in Guatemala City and Massachusetts. His mother came from Guatemala to the United States by herself before the age of twenty. His father was from a family of Russian immigrants.

Now Francisco Goldman divides his time between Mexico City and New York City. He is an English professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

His first book, "The Long Night of White Chickens," was about a Guatemalan-American man. He travels to Central America to investigate the murder of a Guatemalan woman he knew as a child. The book received honors. Book critics praised the power with which Francisco Goldman dealt with both love and politics in "The Long Night of White Chickens."

VOICE ONE:

His second book was "The Ordinary Seaman." Fifteen Central American men are brought to the United States illegally to repair an old ship. But they are tricked by the owners. The ship cannot sail from its port in Brooklyn, New York. The men must search for food and a way out of their situation. Critics again praised Mister Goldman for his writing and storytelling.




For his third book, he wrote a story based on the relationship between Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti and a Guatemalan woman. The book is called "The Divine Husband: A Novel."

Francisco Goldman has also written for magazines like The New Yorker and Harper's Magazine. He says reporting and storytelling are not very different for Latin American writers. He has written both ways about the same issues. These include the war in Guatemala in the nineteen eighties. Mister Goldman says he writes to try to find the truth.

(MUSIC)

Jamaica Kincaid

VOICE TWO:

Jamaica Kincaid is another writer who sets most of her stories in another country. Her books are set on a Caribbean island nation similar to her native Antigua. Mizz Kincaid was born in nineteen forty-nine. Her parents named her Elaine Potter Richardson. She left Antigua when she was seventeen. She changed her name as an adult when she began writing in New York.

Jamaica Kincaid took care of other people's children in New York and went to school. Later, she wrote for magazines. She wrote for The New Yorker for twenty years.




Jamaica Kincaid published her first book, called "At the Bottom of the River," in nineteen eighty-three. This collection of short stories is about a young girl growing up in the Caribbean. The book was praised for its musical writing style and intense emotion.

Since then, Jamaica Kincaid's other books have had a similar strong style and subject matter. Most of her writing is based on her life and her difficult relationship with her mother.

VOICE ONE:

The relationship she presents has been compared to that between Britain and its former colony, Antigua. Jamaica Kincaid dealt with the issue directly in her book "A Small Place." She condemned Britain for its history of slave trade and colonialism, and the effects on her native land.

Some book critics called "A Small Place" too angry. But Mizz Kincaid once said, "The first step in claiming yourself is anger."

VOICE TWO:

Jamaica Kincaid lives in the state of Vermont with her American-born husband and two children. She wrote about the immigrant experience in her book "Lucy." Lucy, a Caribbean woman, tries to survive in a strange and difficult environment. She becomes very critical of American society.

How does the writer herself feel about that society? Jamaica Kincaid says America has "given me a place to be myself – but myself as I was formed somewhere else."

(MUSIC)




VOICE ONE:

Sandra Cisneros

Unlike the other writers we have discussed, Sandra Cisneros was born in the United States. But she writes mainly about the immigrant experience. Sandra Cisneros is a daughter of Mexican-Americans. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-four.

She studied at a writing program in another Midwestern state, Iowa. It was in that program, she says, that she recognized the importance of her ancestry and her experiences as a woman. She says this realization gave her writing its own voice. She has written books of poetry and fiction.

Her first book was "The House on Mango Street." The book is about a young Mexican-American girl. She wants to leave the poor part of the city where she lives. Later, she accepts and welcomes her ethnic identity. The book was a huge success. It won many prizes. "The House on Mango Street" is widely read in schools. Other books by Sandra Cisneros have also been well-received.

VOICE TWO:

"Caramelo," published in two thousand three, tells the story of a big Mexican-American family that travels to Mexico City. The book includes the history of modern Mexico and how it is closely linked to United States history.




"Caramelo" deals with cultural identity and women in society. It deals with lies and memories. And it deals with childhood and family. Sandra Cisneros says it is important that all people in the United States understand the lives of Mexican-Americans.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you can listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.



«Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river».

Lisa See, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

«Every reader finds himself.

The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the

reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself».

Marcel Proust, Time Regained





93. Tomato's Genetic Secrets Are Peeled Away.

Tomatoes. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists have made a genetic map of the tomato. Tomatoes are second only to potatoes as the world's most valuable vegetable crop. Eight years of work went into making the map, or genome. Three hundred scientists around the world took part in the project to sequence the tomato's DNA code. Giovanni Giuliano, a researcher in Italy, is part of the Tomato Genome Consortium. GIOVANNI GIULIANO: "We started as ten countries and we now are fourteen." Mr. Giuliano says having the tomato's genetic map will help growers who are always trying to produce a better tomato.




GIOVANNI GIULIANO: "And of course, this will be facilitated now by the fact that we now know not only what genes are there, but their order." Researchers published the genome of a tomato used by Heinz, the American food company famous for its tomato ketchup. The thick sauce is used on hamburgers, hot dogs and other foods. Heinz's research manager, Rich Ozminkowski, says the company knows what it wants in a tomato. RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "Traits like sugars and, for Heinz, viscosity, or the juice thickness, and the redness of the tomatoes are all very critical traits for us, for our products. Those are all controlled by a lot of different genes within a tomato naturally." Mr. Ozminkowski says genome sequencing takes away much of the guesswork for breeders of tomatoes or other crops that have been mapped. RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "By having the genome information, we can pick out those tomato plants that have more of those genes." Until the late nineteen sixties, the tomatoes that Heinz used to make ketchup often cracked open on the vine after a heavy rain. RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "Heinz had set about trying to put together a variety of tomatoes that would resist that cracking." Breeders used the traditional methods of mating generations of different varieties. The tomatoes they were trying to develop not only had to resist cracking. They also had to resist disease. And they had to be easy to harvest mechanically. Finally the company came up with the tomato it wanted, called the Heinz 1706. Mr. Ozminkowski says the job would have been much easier if there had been a genetic map to follow. RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "The tools available back when 1706 was developed, it was all very, very conventional breeding. There were no genetic tools. You could not look at sequences. You could not do comparisons. And that is what makes the genomic project and the technologies that have spun off of that so interesting." But the work is not just about making better ketchup. Climate change may force many crops to adjust to new conditions. And Mr. Ozminkowski says researchers are already using the new genetic tools to help fight new plant diseases.




RICH OZMINKOWSKI: "And so this is going to give us even more, because there are new diseases that are becoming problems within California and around the world." Researchers published the tomato genome in the journal Nature. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can read, listen and learn English with our stories and more at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find more information about tomatoes. I'm Jim Tedder.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal

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94. 911 Emergency Calls.

In most countries, people can make a telephone call to ask for medical or police help using just three numbers. In the European Union, the number is 1-1-2. Some Asian countries use 9-9-9. In North America, the number is 9-1-1. Wherever you are in the world, when you call for help, you do not want the person answering to say “I don’t understand you.” In the United States, most of the workers who answer calls for emergency help speak just one language -- English. But many people in the United States, and people coming here from other countries, do not speak English. So VOA went to a center where requests for help are received to find out what happens when the person calling speaks a language that emergency workers do not understand. We are about to hear a request for help. The phone call was answered by a worker in the Willamette Valley 9-1-1 Center in Salem, Oregon, in the northwestern United States. But it could have been almost anywhere in America -- in most urban areas, workers receive requests for emergency help every day in a language other than English.




Dispatcher: “9-1-1” Caller: [Cannot be understood] Dispatcher: “Do you have an emergency?” Caller: [“Español?”] Dispatcher: “Do you have an emergency?” Caller: “Si!” Dispatcher: “OK. Just a moment...” Now, the worker will call someone at an agency that employs people who speak the caller’s language. Every 9-1-1 center in the northwestern United States works with such agencies, called emergency translation services. TeleLanguage: “Thanks for calling. What language?” Willamette Valley 9-1-1 Center: “Spanish.” TeleLanguage: “One moment please.” Computer voice: “Thank you. Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality...” On this call, it takes almost one minute for a translator to be connected to the person calling for help. Andrea Tobin is a training manager at the emergency center and a longtime worker there. She says the wait can be difficult for both the emergency workers and the person who needs help. “We get pretty tense, especially if we know it is a medical call -- or this person that is in obvious distress.” “When it is Spanish, it is pretty quick and easy for us to understand. When it is a different dialect, it becomes more complicated for us because we don’t recognize them all. And then they put us on hold while they get an interpreter for the language that we need. That can sometimes be very quick. Sometimes it is 30 seconds or a minute.” The most-common language needing translation is Spanish. Others include Russian, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Some managers of emergency call centers in urban areas of the northwestern United States say they are experiencing an increase in requests for help from people speaking languages heard in African and Middle Eastern countries. Translation companies like Telelanguage and LanguageLine say they can help people in 200 languages.




Mark Buchholz is the director of the Willamette Valley 9-1-1 center. He says using these services is less-costly than employing workers who speak more than one language. Only three of his 55 workers speak more than one language. Two of them speak English and Spanish. A third speaks English and Russian. Mr. Buchholz says centers like his try to employ people who speak more than one language, but he says it is not easy to find these workers. “It’s really tough to require a second language as a requirement to work for us. While it is important -- we do pay a bonus -- the volume isn’t significant enough for us to have that as an exclusive requirement for hiring.” A man has called the Salem, Oregon 9-1-1 center for help. He is speaking in Spanish. He says two men in a car are chasing him. The interpreter is listening to the man, then talking to the emergency worker, who will send police to help the man once they know where he is. Caller: [Words in Spanish] Interpreter: “Lee Street, One Way?” Caller: “Ya.” Interpreter: “I am standing right at the corner of One Way and Lee Street.” Dispatcher: “We don’t have a One Way.” It took the three people another minute to find out that the man was on the corner of Lee and 12th Street. Lee Street is a one-way street -- cars are only permitted to drive on the street in one direction. The caller thought that was the name of the street. Interpreters who join calls like this may be in another state. The companies that employ them tell the workers they can do the work from their home. These companies also help business call centers, banks, schools and courts. In the emergency we just heard, the police were able to quickly help the man who called. Several managers of emergency call centers say it is important to be able to say the name of your country and your language in the language of the country you are visiting or living in. That may save you important time.




You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/emergency-911-multi-language/2429774.html Original Title: «It's an Emergency in Any Language». New Title by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.


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95. Nanotechnology: How the Science of the Very Small Is Getting Very Big.

(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the most important research fields in technology. It is called nanotechnology. It is the science of making things unimaginably small. But there is nothing small about the problems that scientists hope nanotechnology will solve. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nanotechnology gets its name from a measure of distance. A nanometer, or nano, is one-thousand-millionth of a meter. This is about the size of atoms and molecules. Nanotechnologists work with materials this small.




Many experts credit the idea to physicist Richard Feynman. In nineteen fifty-nine, this Nobel Prize winner gave a speech. He called it “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” Mister Feynman discussed the theory that scientists could make devices smaller and smaller -- all the way down to the atomic level. Although he did not use the word nanotechnology, the speech got many scientists thinking about the world of the very small. But for years this idea remained only a theory. VOICE TWO: At the time, no way existed to record structures the size of molecules. Not even electron microscopes could do the job. But as the nineteen eighties began, two researchers found a way. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer worked at a laboratory in Zurich Switzerland. They worked for IBM, the American company International Business Machines. They invented what they called a scanning tunneling microscope. This permitted scientist to observe molecules and even atoms in greater detail than ever before. VOICE ONE: Once they could see nano-sized structures, the next step for scientists was to find a way to create their own. By the middle of the nineteen eighties, scientists had increased their research on carbon. They were interested in the ability to use this common element to make nano-sized structures. Carbon had already been engineered in chemical reactions to make long poly-carbon chains. Today, the result of carbon chemical engineering is everywhere -- in the form of plastic. Scientists in the nineteen eighties wanted to create nano-structures from carbon atoms. In nineteen eighty-five, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley succeeded. They aimed a laser at carbon. This powerful light caused some of the carbon to become a gas. The scientists cooled the gas to an extremely low temperature. Then they looked at the carbon material that remained. They found, among several kinds of carbon, a molecule of sixty atoms -- carbon sixty. VOICE TWO: Carbon sixty is a group of tightly connected carbon atoms that forms a ball. It is a very strong structure. This is because all the atoms share any loose electrons that might take part in chemical reactions with other atoms. This kind of molecular carbon can also appear with different numbers of carbon atoms. There is also carbon seventy, for example. For their work, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in nineteen ninety-six.




(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next nano-structure development came in nineteen ninety-three. Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima of the company NEC developed carbon nanotubes. These nano-sized objects are really six-sided atomic structures connected to form a tube. They are extremely strong. Scientists believe that someday nanotubes could replace the carbon graphite now used to make airplane parts. Soon after this discovery, researchers started to think about using nanotubes to build extremely small devices. In two thousand three, IBM announced that it had made the world's smallest light. Researchers used a carbon nanotube attached to a silicon base. They sent opposing electrical charges down the tube. The reaction between the charged particles produced an extremely small amount of light. IBM says the wavelength of light produced could be used in communications. VOICE TWO: Nanotubes appear to have many different uses. Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a way to make a flat material, or film, out of nanotubes. The researchers create the super thin film by chemically growing nanotubes on a piece of glass. They use another piece of sticky material to remove the film of nanotubes from the glass. When the film is finished, it is only fifty nanometers thick. That is about one one-thousandth the width of human hair. The material is extremely strong and it carries electricity as well. Researchers think the nanotube material could be used to make car windows that can receive radio signals. They also believe it could be used to make solar electricity cells, lights or thin, moveable displays that show pictures like a television. VOICE ONE: Nano-materials are already being used in some products. For example, materials using mixtures of nano-materials are being used to make sporting goods like tennis balls and tennis rackets better. Soon, nano-materials could be used to improve devices that reduce pollution released by cars. Similar technology could be used to warn of the presence of poisonous molecules in the air. (MUSIC)




VOICE TWO: Computer scientists hope developments in nanotechnology will help break barriers of size and speed. In nineteen sixty-five, electronics expert Gordon Moore recognized that computer chips, the engines that drive computers, would quickly grow in power. He even thought of a way to measure this progress. He said researchers would double the number of tiny transistors on a computer chip about every two years. A transistor is a device that controls electrical current. That statement is known as Moore’s law. It has proved correct for more than forty years. Mister Moore would go on to help start the company Intel, one of the world’s leading computer chip makers. And Moore’s law is one of the most talked about scientific barriers. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-one, Intel created a computer chip containing two thousand three hundred transistors. In two thousand four, Intel made a chip with five hundred ninety-two million transistors. But current technology has reached its limit. The next jump to one thousand million transistors will require new discoveries in nanotechnology. Researchers are trying to solve the problems of creating nano-sized transistors. In two thousand two, IBM announced that it had created the world’s smallest transistor based on the element silicon. IBM said the transistor was four to eight nanometers thick. In two thousand five, researchers for the company Hewlett Packard wrote about the problems of creating nano-transistors in the magazine Scientific American. They said transistors are often measured by the distance between the middle of two current-bearing wires. Their nano-wire transistor measured thirty-nanometers in size. They said the smallest transistor currently used in a computer is ninety nanometers. But making nano-transistors small enough to meet the demands of Moore’s law may be years in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Although nanotechnology is exciting, there are concerns about the safety of super small structures. Scientists and environmental activists worry that nano-materials could pass into the air and water causing health problems. There is reason for concern. A study by NASA researchers found that nano-particles caused severe lung damage to laboratory mice. Other studies suggest that nano-particles could suppress the growth of plant roots or could even harm the human body’s ability to fight infection.




VOICE ONE: The Environmental Protection Agency says there is not much known about the effects of nano-structures in the environment. This is because the laws of physics do not work in the same way at the level of the extremely small. The EPA recognizes that this could mean that there are unknown health risks involved in nanotechnology. The government is expected to spend about thirty nine million dollars on research meant to investigate the health risks of nano-materials. But that is less than four percent of total government spending, which will be more than one thousand million dollars this year. Many environmental groups say at least ten percent of that total is needed. They say private industry needs to spend more on safety research. And, they say, the government needs to develop rules for nano-materials, which are already being made in hundreds of places around the country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/a-23-2006-02-07-voa3-83130402/126372.html





96. Emotion Words.

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: words that express emotion.

RS: Suppose someone gave you two minutes to write down as many different emotions as you could think of -- for example: happy, sad, angry. You're also told to rate each emotion as "unpleasant," "neutral" or "pleasant." What would come to mind?

AA: That's what groups of English speakers in Chicago, and Spanish speakers in Mexico City, had to do for a study led by Robert Schrauf, a linguistics professor at Penn State University.




ROBERT SCHRAUF: "So that data was available to me, and I began to analyze it one day and found this rather curious difference. And that was that about 50 percent of the emotion words that people mentioned were negative, and about 30 percent positive and 20 percent neutral.

And those proportions were consistent across all of these groups, from young Mexicans to older Mexicans in Mexico City and young to old English speakers in Chicago. For instance, here is the young Anglos', in order, the first five: happy, sad, angry, excited, afraid.

"Now what's curious about that list is, happy is positive. That's one word. Then there's sad, angry, afraid -- that's three negative -- and excited, which generally comes across to people as a neutral word."

RS: "What does this tell us, that 50 percent are negative, 30 percent are positive and 20 percent are neutral? What does this tell us about our emotions, or how we express ourselves?"

ROBERT SCHRAUF: "Right, so that's the curious thing. So you could look at that list and entertain a number of hypotheses. You could say, 'well, you know, human beings just have more negative experiences than positive ones, and therefore ... ' Or you might think that people take dour views of things, I don't know. So what became interesting was how to explain this. And I went back to the literature and found that the theorizing about emotions is as follows:

"We tend to think that there are positive and negative emotions on a kind of a continuum. But both the behavioral and the neurophysiological literature suggest that actually there are two channels [in the brain] for processing emotions -- one negative and one positive.

"And what happens is, it seems to me -- or the explanation I'm taking from the literature -- is that we respond to negative emotions by thinking more carefully, in a more detailed manner, and we respond to positive emotions by thinking more schematically. We tend to process those more facilely. So my response to a happy emotion is to sort of think top-down, to think that things are moving as they should in the world or perhaps a bit better.

"And that makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. I mean, if there's danger or threat, then I need to pay a great deal of careful attention to that. If things are going OK, then it's benign; I can sort of move ahead."

RS: "I find it very interesting, the comparison across cultures in the studies that you reviewed."




ROBERT SCHRAUF: "Right, right. So let's say there are five to seven basic emotions which we'll find with appropriate emotion words present in all languages and all cultures. I mean, we would have to do an empirical study to find that, but the evidence that we've gathered so far tends to suggest that that's true. What makes cultures unique are all of those non-basic emotions that once you get through joy, anger, fear, sadness -- those initial very pan-cultural words and pan-cultural emotions -- then there are long lists of emotion words in each language that make rather curious distinctions that are not translatable.

"So an example in Spanish, for instance, is 'verguenza,' which we translate as 'shame.' But it's a far more powerful word than our word shame. Or for instance, in German, 'schadenfreude' is a word that implies a feeling of delight at someone else's misfortune, and we don't have an appropriate translation in English."

AA: Professor Robert Schrauf, speaking to us from the studios of WPSX at Penn State University. His report, written with researcher Julia Sanchez, can be found in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.

RS: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected].

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page.

http://www.unsv.com/voanews/wordmaster/scripts/2005/02/16/


http://www.unsv.com/voanews/wordmaster/scripts/2005/02/16/



97. Exploring the Nile in Egypt.

Poster: Pyramids and the Nile River in Egypt.

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit the Nile River valley to explore one of the greatest civilizations in human history. The people of ancient Egypt developed the first nation-state, which would set the stage for a culture that would last thousands of years. For centuries, the art, architecture, and traditions of ancient Egypt have captured the attention of historians, writers, and travelers around the world. Join us as we travel down the Nile and back through time.




(MUSIC)

Abu Simbel

VOICE THREE: "We shall never enjoy another place like Ipsamboul; the absolute solitude of it - the absence of a present, of any of one's fellow-creatures ... I came out of the [temple] and looked again upon the glorious colossi. I wish all my friends could see them once in their lives, if only for a moment; or that I could describe to anyone the look of intense repose in those faces." VOICE ONE: Those were the words written by British medical worker Florence Nightingale. She traveled to Egypt in eighteen forty-nine to explore its many sites. She is describing the temple of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt. Like many European visitors, Miss Nightingale wrote a detailed description of her months of travel through this country. VOICE TWO: Our own trip down the Nile begins at the temple of Abu Simbel. The Egyptian ruler Ramses the Second built this extraordinary temple over three thousand two hundred years ago. The temple is dedicated to the Egyptian gods Ra-Horakhty, Amun and Ptah. But it is really meant to show the power and strength of Ramses the Second who led Egypt for over sixty years. Like other pharaohs, Ramses was considered an earthly representation of a god.




VOICE ONE: Four twenty-meter tall statues of Ramses guard the front of the temple, which is carved into the side of a mountain. Staring up at these huge statues, you suddenly feel very small and impermanent compared to this timeless structure. Inside the temple, detailed carvings on the walls show Ramses defeating his enemies in battle. The walls also show examples of hieroglyphics, the form of Egyptian writing that uses pictures. This is the oldest known system of writing in the world. VOICE TWO: Like many Egyptian temples, Abu Simbel has a first room or hypostyle hall filled with column supports. Next, there is a second hall, followed by a sanctuary. Only religious workers and the pharaoh were permitted to enter this last room. The sanctuary of Abu Simbel contains statues of the temple's four gods. VOICE ONE: Next to this building is a smaller temple honoring the wife of Ramses the second, Nefertari. In the nineteen sixties, both temples were moved stone by stone from their original sites and rebuilt two hundred meters away. This was done as protection from the rising water of the Nile as a result of the building of the Aswan High Dam. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our trip continues in the town of Aswan where many travelers start their river trip on a boat that is like a hotel. There are many interesting places to visit in Aswan. They include the Nubian museum, the Aswan Botanical Gardens and the Old Cataract Hotel. The British mystery writer Agatha Christie wrote part of her book "Death on The Nile" in this hotel. VOICE ONE: You can also visit the Aswan High Dam and the water it collects in Lake Nasser, the largest man-made lake in the world. The dam was built starting in nineteen sixty under Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Its aim was to control the flow of water of the Nile. The dam has greatly increased the amount of farmland in Egypt and supplies the country with hydroelectric power. But the dam has also caused environmental and cultural problems. Our guide, Egypt expert Mohamed Fahmy tells us about the native people most affected by the dam.




MOHAMED FAHMY: "The Nubians used to live here. There were one hundred thousand Nubians living in this place. But after the creation of the lake they had to be displaced. Half of them decided to stay in Aswan. They took the left bank of Aswan to be their new Nubia. The rest of them, they went to Sudan." VOICE TWO:

A building at Philae during the sound and light show

Another popular area near Aswan is the Greco-Roman temple of Philae. Philae is one of many monuments built after the Macedonian warrior Alexander the Great took control of Egypt about two thousand three hundred years ago. One of his generals, Ptolemy, took control of Egypt after Alexander's death. He established a line of Ptolemaic leaders that ruled for three hundred years. To see Philae, visitors must take a boat to a small island. (SOUND) If you go at night, you can see a sound and light show. During the show, recorded voices of actors give a theatrical history of the temple while it is lit up in bright colors.




ACTOR: "Oh Nile, father of life. All hail to you. When your waters rise and your bounty overwhelms us. The earth trembles with ecstasy, life is reborn, all is nurtured. But when you subside, the very gods despair. And men become slighter than their shadows." VOICE ONE:

The Kiosk of Trajan at Philae.

This temple was built in honor of the goddess Isis over two thousand years ago. One of the most famous buildings at Philae is the Kiosk of Trajan. It was a favorite subject in paintings by nineteenth century European travelers. VOICE TWO: Continuing down the Nile, we arrive at the temple of Kom Ombo. This Ptolemaic temple was built to honor two gods, the crocodile god Sobek and Haroeris. It is unusual because it has double gates and rooms in order to honor both gods. The wall carvings show the traditions and daily life of Egyptians. One wall has detailed carvings of medical tools. Our guide Mohamed Fahmy tells us about them.




MOHAMED FAHMY: "Here they depicted some of their medical instruments. Come closer to see it. Most of these, we are still using today. You can see a scissor, you can see a sponge, two stones to sharpen the cutters. And you can see a scale to weigh the materials. You can see two eyes in here. These are the eyes of Horus, symbol of protection." Further north, there is also the Temple of Horus at Edfu. This Ptolemaic temple is one of the most completely preserved temples in Egypt. (MUSIC)

Carvings of medical tools at Kom Ombo.

VOICE ONE: Now, we sail about one hundred kilometers north. This gives us time to enjoy the river scenes along the Nile. From the boat you can see palm trees, children playing in fields and local people rowing small boats. And you can wave to travelers on other hotel boats. Our next stop is the ancient city of Thebes, known today as Luxor. VOICE TWO: Starting around three thousand five hundred years ago, a series of pharaohs built secret burial structures in the nearby Valley of the Kings. Pharaohs chose to be buried in this rocky area because it was far away from people and easy to protect. These burial structures were more secretive than the large pyramids of earlier pharaohs. Builders of these tombs dug tunnels that led to burial rooms for the ruler's body and his treasures. These objects and the many paintings on the walls were designed to help the ruler in the next life.




VOICE ONE: Few things were as important to Egyptian rulers as preparing for their death while they were still alive. This meant building complex burial structures that could help guarantee they would live forever in the afterlife. Egyptians developed a detailed method of preserving dead bodies, called mummification. They believed that a body had to be carefully prepared and stored to survive in the afterlife. VOICE TWO: The most famous tomb in the valley belonged to the pharaoh Tutankhamun. He was not known for his activities as a ruler. Instead, he is famous for the treasures found in his tomb when it was discovered in the nineteen twenties. Most other tombs in the area were robbed over the centuries. But this one was in perfect condition and has taught experts a great deal about Egyptian funeral traditions. VOICE ONE:

The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak.




Also nearby is the village of Karnak. It was built to honor the gods of Thebes, a capital of Egypt in ancient times. For over fifteen hundred years different pharaohs built their own additions to the series of buildings at Karnak. The most striking room of the Karnak Temple is the Great Hypostyle Hall, which covers six thousand square meters. It contains one hundred thirty-four huge stone columns. The columns were once brightly painted and held up a roof covering. VOICE TWO: The pharaoh Amenhotep built the central area of the nearby temple of Luxor about three thousand three hundred years ago. Other rulers also added to the building. At the entrance to the temple there is a long row of sphinx statues that once measured three kilometers long. These sphinx statues combine the body of a lion with the head of a human. Visiting this place at night is pure magic. As you walk along the rows of glowing sphinx statues, you feel like you have traveled back through time to a very ancient and extraordinary past. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next week we continue our travels in the modern Egyptian capital of Cairo. This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. To see pictures of Egypt, visit our Web site. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page.






Maps of the Nile River in Egyp.

1)




2)




98. Entrepreneurs Change the World.

Bill Gates.

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about entrepreneurs and the problems they face starting businesses around the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

"Entrepreneur" is a French word that means someone who does something. An entrepreneur is someone who attempts to organize resources in new and more valuable ways and accepts full responsibility for the result.




Entrepreneurs bring a new product, service or idea to market. For more than a century, entrepreneurs have changed the world. American Bill Gates is perhaps the world's best-known entrepreneur. He did not invent personal computers. But his operating system made computers easy to use. It also brought the new technology to millions of people around the world.

VOICE TWO:

Wendell Cochran is a journalism professor at American University in Washington, D.C. He says the Internet is a very helpful tool for entrepreneurs. That is because it provides information to anyone, anywhere.

Craig Newmark is an example of another American entrepreneur. Thirteen years ago, Mister Newmark created an Internet message service for the investment company where he worked. Today, his web site, Craig's List, has users in more than five hundred fifty hundred cities and fifty countries. They can buy and sell goods, find a job or a place to live.

VOICE ONE:

Modern technology has made it easier for entrepreneurs around the world to succeed. However, they still have problems getting money to start businesses and deal with government restrictions in many countries. In Venezuela, for example, monetary exchange controls and a leadership hostile to free markets make it difficult to do business. Santiago Alvarez is a businessman in Caracas. He says it is difficult to get all the permits necessary to start a business.

In India, Sunil Mittal overcame different problems to build a successful telecommunications company. He says the end of central economic planning by the country's government helped his company succeed.

SUNIL MITTAL: "With thirty, thirty-five million dollars that I could access, we went on to built India's second largest telecom company."

Today, Bharti Airtel has thirty thousand employees. The Bharti Group has become India's second largest corporation.

(MUSIC)




VOICE TWO:

Brent Goldfarb is a business professor at the University of Maryland. He says all kinds of people work to become entrepreneurs. However, he says most entrepreneurs do not get rich. Most earn less than if they were working for someone else. That was true for Pakistani entrepreneur Ashar Hafeez. He opened his first Tandoori restaurant in Islamabad in nineteen ninety-three. He has advice for other entrepreneurs: "You have to work very hard. And you cannot do it alone. You have to have a very good team with you."

VOICE ONE:

In Iraqi Kurdistan, Suhela Kakil Raza is a mother of four. She began making women's clothes about a year ago. But there were problems finding a place to open her store in her city, Irbil. She had to find an area in Irbil where men did not go. This would permit Sunni Muslim women to come out and buy her products. Now, Suhela Kakil Raza has four employees and she wants to expand. She says she dreams of having a factory. She would also like to operate a school to train her female workers.

VOICE TWO:

In South Africa, Mthuli Ncube is the director of the entrepreneurship institute at the University of the Vitwatersrand. He says the African continent does not have enough entrepreneurs who are prepared to take risks. However, the most successful black entrepreneur in South Africa, Richard Maponya, has been taking risks for a long time to build successful businesses. Now in his eighties, Mister Maponya recently opened a huge shopping center in Soweto, near the city of Johannesburg.

Donald Trump is one of America's most successful property developers. He says entrepreneurs must think big and take action. He says they also must study new information, learn to negotiate and enjoy competition.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In many developing countries, small loans are known as micro-credit or micro-financing. They have helped entrepreneurs get the money they need to start a business. Special attention is now being given to female entrepreneurs. They have had to beat many cultural barriers to get financing.




In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank lends small amounts of money, mainly to women. And almost all of these small business loans are repaid. Grameen was the first bank in the developing world to lend money to poor people who wanted to be entrepreneurs. Muhammad Yunus started the Grameen Bank. He and the bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand six.

VOICE TWO:

Grameen's micro-financing has expanded the idea of entrepreneurship to many people. For them, entrepreneurship is about raising chickens and cows or making clothes to help feed their families. For example, Margaret Okoth sells food at a market in Nairobi, Kenya. She is using low-interest micro-loans from an organization in her village.

MARGARET OKOTH: "[The cooperative] has recently increased its limit so that you can borrow eighty thousand [shillings]. And if you take out that big a loan you'll really see your business grow."

Margaret Okoth's area at the market was destroyed in violence after the Kenyan election. But loans permitted her to rebuild. The money also helped her balance her business with her other job, as a wife and mother of twelve children.

VOICE ONE:

Now, large lenders like the World Bank are supporting the ideas of the Grameen Bank in discussions with developing countries. Dahlia Khalifa is a business expert at the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. She says getting the necessary financing is the biggest barrier for female entrepreneurs in African countries. But she says discrimination against women goes even further. In many places, women are not permitted to sign an agreement or to represent themselves in court.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Many countries have policies that make it hard for entrepreneurs to start businesses. In Russia, for example, people often have to make secret payments to government officials to influence their decisions on business permits. Other entrepreneurs say they have to deal with government processes that are slow and difficult.

Alexei Protsky has a chemical company. He says he has to deal with unnecessary rules and reporting requirements. He says dealing with too much paperwork means a loss of time and reduction in productivity for his company.




VOICE ONE:

Every year, the World Bank rates countries on the ease of starting a business. The Bank examines the processes involved in getting permits, getting credit, paying taxes and enforcing agreements. World Bank specialist Dahlia Khalifa says some governments are reforming and changing their business laws. The World Bank said Egypt was the top reformer last year, followed by Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia and Georgia. The bank says Egypt reduced the amount of money needed to start a business. Egypt also eased rules that used to delay building permits.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Schools and universities around the world are teaching entrepreneurship. For example, in China and India, thousands of people are attending graduate schools of business where entrepreneurship is taught.

Such programs in the developing world are influenced by those in the United States. At some American universities, business students are required to start a business before they complete their study program.

Elaine Allen teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College in Boston, Massachusetts. She says she meets with groups of college students before they learn about financial rules. The groups are given two thousand dollars and told to start a business.

At the end of the year, she says, almost all of them make a profit. Often the profits are as much as fifty or sixty thousand dollars. They donate this money to non-profit organizations. These students are on their way to becoming entrepreneurs of the future.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Barry Wood and adapted by Shelley Gollust. Our producer was Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.




VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page. http://www.unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2008/09/17/0045/

«One of the greatest satisfactions that one can ever have comes from the

knowledge that we can do some one thing superlatively well».

—Hortense Odlum





99. The National Book Festival (USA) Celebrates Reading for Everyone.

More than one hundred thousand visitors attended the festival on the National Mall.

VOICE ONE:


VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Today we tell about the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. which was held on September twenty-sixth.




For nine years this outdoor event organized by the Library of Congress has brought readers, writers and illustrators to the nation's capital. Its aim is to celebrate a love of learning through books.

This year, more than one hundred thirty thousand people gathered on the National Mall to hear top writers and poets talk about their work.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This year's National Book Festival included more than seventy novelists, historians, poets and mystery writers. But some of the most excited visitors of all were the children who came to see their favorite writers.

VOICE TWO:

Judy Blume signing books

One favorite writer who attended the festival was Judy Blume. She has sold more than eighty million copies of her popular books for young people. These include "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret", "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" and "Blubber." Her books deal with difficult subjects such as religion, divorce, death, love and sex in a way that young readers can understand. Mizz Blume has also written books for adults.




At the festival, Judy Blume read to a group of children from her own favorite book as a child, "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans. She explained why she chose this book.

JUDY BLUME: "I was afraid of everything. My mother said I was afraid of my own shadow. But I really wanted to be strong and brave like Madeline. So she was my hero, so here is my favorite book from when I was growing up."

VOICE ONE:

Judy Blume is one of the most popular children's book writers. But she is also one of the most banned writers. Since the nineteen eighties, several libraries and parents' groups have tried to ban her books. She has since become a fierce supporter of literary freedom and is part of several organizations that fight censorship.

Her most recent children's book is called "Friend or Fiend? with the Pain and the Great One." It tells about the adventures of a brother and sister, Jake and Abigail.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Rick Riordan was another popular writer who spoke at the festival.

RICK RIORDAN: "My name is Rick Riordan, I write for children and young adults. I write a series about a character named Percy Jackson who is a modern day kid living in New York City, but finds out that like the old Greek heroes Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, all of those guys, Percy's dad is actually a Greek god. And, the Greek gods are still alive and well and living in New York."

We asked Mister Riordan what influenced him to write this series. He said reading to his two sons about ancient Greece was one reason. But his professional background was another influence.

RICK RIORDAN: "My background is a teacher. I taught young adults from, say, age eleven through thirteen for about fifteen years. And I taught them history, I taught them literature. And, mythology was always one of my favorite subjects and one of my students' favorite subjects as well."

Mister Riordan says there was only one subject that amazed his students more than ancient Greece--- and that was ancient Egypt. This gave him an idea for his next book.

RICK RIORDAN: "Next spring, I'm going to release a book set in the modern day world -- but a fantasy based on Egyptian mythology, bringing all those old Egyptian gods back to life."




VOICE ONE:

Nikki Grimes is a children's writer and poet whose works include "Jazmin's Notebook" and "The Road to Paris." Here she talks about her deep love of poetry.

NIKKI GRIMES: "I'm all about words. And when it comes to words, poetry is at the top of my list. Whenever I have a smidgen of time to indulge myself, which is rare these days, I love to curl up with a volume of poetry. Poetry feeds my soul. Poetry is comforting and soothing, and it's awe-inspiring as a glimpse of rainbow, which should come as no surprise since poems and rainbows have something in common. They both offer a kaleidoscope of color."

VOICE TWO:

Other children's book writers at the festival included Kate DiCamillo. She is best known for her novel "The Tale of Despereaux" about a little mouse who has some big adventures.

Jeff Kinney was another popular writer who attended this event. His series, called "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," is about a young boy named Greg Heffley. The book takes the form of a personal journal and includes funny drawings of Greg's school adventures.

(MUSIC)

JAMES PATTERSON: "Outline, outline, outline, outline."

VOICE ONE:

That was the adult and children's book writer James Patterson answering a question about how he writes books. He says this advice is for professional writers as well as school children writing papers. He says creating a plan for the structure of the book listing the main ideas makes writing much easier.

JAMES PATTERSON: "It will go faster, you will write a better piece, you will get a better grade. Outline. So the first step in terms of my writing is outline."

James Patterson's "Maximum Ride" and "Daniel X" series have become best sellers in the United States.




VOICE TWO:

We asked festival visitor Tonya from Beltsville, Maryland what brought her to the event. She said her son Aiden is five, and she wants him to be interested in books. She said she decided the festival would be a good place to start.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The National Book Festival was also filled with writers of books for adults. Jodi Picoult writes books about families and individuals facing very difficult situations. Her latest book, "Handle With Care," is about a family struggling to survive with a severely sick child. The parents find a way to pay for their endless medical expenses that requires them to make a very difficult moral decision. Mizz Picoult talked to visitors at the festival about studying creative writing in college. She said she knew there was not much to write about from her personal experiences. So she looked around her to find subjects for her books.

JODI PICOULT: "I realized that if I was going to write, what I was going to have to do instead was to write what I was willing to learn instead of what I knew. And that sort of geared me up for a whole series of novels where I do tons of research, even though I write fiction, which is supposed to be made up, right?"

VOICE TWO:

Many writers at the festival specialize in historical and political events. American presidents were a popular subject. For example, Douglas Brinkley is a history professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His latest book is called "The Wilderness Warrior" about President Theodore Roosevelt. It tells about his efforts to protect America's wilderness by securing huge amounts of land for national parks in the early nineteen hundreds.

VOICE ONE:

James L. Swanson has written a book about the hunt to find the killer of President Abraham Lincoln. His book is called "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer." He also wrote a version of his story for children. It is called "Chasing Lincoln's Killer."

Mister Swanson says his interest in Abraham Lincoln began the day he was born, February twelfth. This was also President Lincoln's birthday. But the writer says it was his grandmother who really got him interested in this subject.




JAMES L. SWANSON: "When I was ten, my grandmother gave me as a gift, not a bicycle, not a baseball mitt or a bat, she gave me a framed engraving of the derringer pistol that John Wilkes Booth used to assassinate the president. And you might find that to be an odd gift for a child, but I didn't."

VOICE TWO:

And, reporter Gwen Ifill has written about a more recent president. Her latest book is called "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama." She examines race, racism and identity during last year's presidential campaign.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Library of Congress used this year's National Book Festival to launch its new Web site aimed at supporting reading for all age groups. There are many different reading activities on this site, Read.gov. For example, one program is called "Letters for Literature." School children are urged to write letters to writers whose books have changed their lives. Winners who write the best letters receive an award. The writers that the students choose do not have to be alive.

For example, one student wrote to the American writer Jack London to thank him for writing the book "White Fang." The student wrote this about the book: "Before I read your book, I was alive and breathing. But after I read your book, I felt it was important to be living and have fun."

VOICE TWO:

Read.gov also includes a children's book that is in the process of being written. It is called "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and so far only has two chapters. Every two weeks, a new writer and illustrator will build onto the story that earlier writers and illustrators have created.

The title of the book may seem a bit unusual for a children's story. But the term "exquisite corpse" comes from a game in which a group of people collectively write a story.

Readers will have to wait a year to know the ending of the story. And by then, it will be time for another National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember.




VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of some of these writers on our Web site. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page.


«Spend time with Nature. Natural settings have a powerful effect on your senses which in turn will lead to a sense of renewal, refreshment and peacefulness. Peak performers through the ages have understood the importance of getting back to Nature. Start camping or simply taking quiet walks in the forest. Rest by a sparkling stream. Cultivate your own little garden which will serve as your personal oasis in the middle of a crowded city. By cultivating a friendship with Nature, you will quickly find more serenity, contentment and richness in your life». From the Book ‘The Top 200 Secrets of Success and the Pillars of Self-Mastery’ -- Robin S. Sharma

Observation: the document now presented ‘The National Book Festival (USA) Celebrates Reading for Everyone’, and a previous document named ‘Reading in USA’ are not identical.





100. ‘The Journal Biological Psychology’ about Intelligence.

«Luck is when Preparation Meets Opportunity».

You may have heard people say that hard work is more important than the intelligence you are born with. Recently, researchers noted changes in the brains of individuals immediately after they were told this. Hans Schroder led a study at Michigan State University. Mr. Schroder is a student at the university. As he noted, whether or not what people were told was true, “giving people messages that encourage learning and motivation may promote more efficient performance.” In the study, two groups read different stories about intelligence. One story said intelligence levels are a product of our genetic material and cannot be changed. The researchers called this, the “fixed mindset.” The other story discussed how difficult living environments probably made individuals like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein highly intelligent. Researchers called this the “growth mindset.”




Later, the researchers tested the groups’ members on what they had just read. Mr. Schroeder and his team watched their brain activity as they answered questions about the main subjects in the story. The researchers say they found that small messages about our abilities can have a big effect on our beliefs about what we are able to do. The people who read that intelligence comes from genes worked to answer the questions correctly. But their test results did not improve on later exams. But the opposite was true among those who read that intelligence can come from hard work. They showed what the researchers called a more efficient brain response after they were told their answer was wrong. This suggests they thought they could give the correct answer on the next test. And the more these individuals thought about their mistakes, the faster they answered the questions on the next test. The researchers say the study showed that those who had a growth mindset made efforts to improve and adapt. They say even a small amount of time spent on changing the mindset, or beliefs, of individuals can affect how their brain operates. In their words, “messages about how much our abilities can change affect learning, achievement, and performance.” The study was published in the journal Biological Psychology. I’m Christopher Cruise. VOA correspondent Faith Lapidus reported this story from Washington. Christopher Cruise wrote it for Learning English. George Grow edited it. You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher, or, go to my Personal Page. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/beliefs-about-intelligence-changes-brain-activity/2446091.html Original Title: «How Did You Get so Intelligent?». New Title by M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.


http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/beliefs-about-intelligence-changes-brain-activity/2446091.html

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/beliefs-about-intelligence-changes-brain-activity/2446091.html



«Like you Observe, ‘The Journal Biological Psychology’ about

Intelligence» has the very special Distinction of Being the

Document «Number 100», into the Present Assortment «ERD-

VOA».

«The Way of Success is the Way of Continuous Pursuit of Knowledge».

From the Book: Think & Grow Rich.




I N D I C E.

Texts from 1 to 10. __________________________________________________________ 6

1. Words and Their Stories: Computer Terms. ____________________________________________ 7

2. How Freud Changed What People Thought About the Mind. ______________________________ 9

3. National Standards for US Schools Gain Support From States. ____________________________ 14

4. Severe Weather: How Ocean Storms Work. ___________________________________________ 16

5. Why Vitamins Are Important to Good Health. _________________________________________ 21

6. After 50 Years, Lasers Have Made Their Mark. ________________________________________ 26

7. Leonardo da Vinci: One of the Greatest Thinkers in History.______________________________ 31

8. Crime and Punishment. ___________________________________________________________ 36

9. How Nine Researchers Won Their Nobel Prizes. _______________________________________ 41

10. The Color of Money: America’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing Produces Millions of Dollars a Day. ____________________________________________________________________________ 46

Texts from 11 to 20. _______________________________________________________ 51

11. A Rolling History of Americans on the Move. _________________________________________ 52

12. Isaac Newton: One of the World’s Greatest Scientists. _________________________________ 56

13. Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882: A Great 19th Century Writer and Philosopher. __________ 61

14. Economy Pushes Spanish to Learn English. __________________________________________ 66

15. Three Books That Explore the Human Brain. _________________________________________ 69

16. John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006: He Influenced Economic Thought for Many Years. ______ 74

17. Does Physical Activity Lead to Higher Grades?. _______________________________________ 79

18. Medical Spies Keep Watch on Leaders. _____________________________________________ 81

19. Louis Kahn, 1901-1974: He Helped Define Modern Architecture. _________________________ 84

20. Cleopatra Was a Powerful and Wise Ruler. __________________________________________ 89

Texts from 21 to 30. _______________________________________________________ 94

21. Program Helps Students Express Themselves With Creative Writing. _____________________ 95

22. Brief history of the English Language. _______________________________________________ 98

23. Henry Ford, 1863-1947: Life After the Model T. ______________________________________ 101




24. Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961: He Was Able to Paint in Words What He Saw and Felt. _____ 106

25. George Washington - How the USA First President Led the Nation. ______________________ 111

26. Positioning Agriculture at the Center of Climate Talks. ________________________________ 116

27. American History: Creativity Reached New Heights During Great Depression. _____________ 119

28. American History: Life in the U.S. After the 9/11 Attacks. ______________________________ 125

29. Thomas Edison, 1847-1931: America's Great Inventor. ________________________________ 132

30. How Culture Affected Shakespeare, and He Affected Culture. __________________________ 137

Texts from 31 to 40. ______________________________________________________ 142

31. American History: D-Day Invasion of Europe. _______________________________________ 143

32. The Imagination of Alexander Hamilton. ___________________________________________ 151

33. Rio+20 Brings Attention to Sustainable Development. ________________________________ 156

34. Taking the Frustration Out of Phrasal Verbs. ________________________________________ 158

35. Taking the TOEFL. _____________________________________________________________ 162

36. President Abraham Lincoln Portrait. ______________________________________________ 164

37. Christopher Columbus and the New World. _________________________________________ 168

38. Kitchen Chemistry: The Science of Herbs and Spices __________________________________ 176

39. IB Program Aims to Form 'Students of the World'. ___________________________________ 181

40. Why exercise is so important. ____________________________________________________ 183

Texts from 41 to 50. ______________________________________________________ 189

41. Time - One of the Great Mysteries of Our Universe. __________________________________ 190

42. Sexual and Reproductive Health Education. ________________________________________ 195

43. Nobel Prize in Economics Recognizes 'Market Designers'. _____________________________ 197

44. The Beginning of The American War of Independence. ________________________________ 200

45. Great Thinkers: Charles Darwin and Evolution. ______________________________________ 206

46. Proverbs Tell How to Succeed in Life. ______________________________________________ 211

47. The Complex Story of Abraham Lincoln and How He Saved the Union. ___________________ 213

48. Proverbs Tell About Love, War and Money. _________________________________________ 219

49. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) – He Changed the Way We Understand the Universe. _________ 221

50. ‘The World Bank’ About Importance of the English Language. __________________________ 226

Texts from 51 to 60. ______________________________________________________ 230




51. American History: English Settlers Establish Colonies In the New World. _________________ 231

52. The Joys of Spelling. ____________________________________________________________ 236

53. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974): Made the First Solo Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean. 239

54. A brief Encounter with the French Language. _______________________________________ 244

55. Are People Who Speak More Than One Language Smarter? ____________________________ 247

56. Henry Loomis: Director of VOA Had Idea to Create Special English. ______________________ 250

57. American History - A Declaration Seeking Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. _______ 255

58. Harvard University. ____________________________________________________________ 261

59. Can You 'Think and Grow Rich?' A Famous Books Says, 'Yes'. ___________________________ 263

60. Are You Ready for Success?, by Brian Tracy. ________________________________________ 265

Texts from 61 to 70. ______________________________________________________ 268

61. The Formula For Failure And Success. _____________________________________________ 269

62. Three Forms of Intellectual Capital, by Brian Tracy. __________________________________ 273

63. Relax and Recharge Completely, by Brian Tracy. _____________________________________ 276

64. Strategies to Master your Professional Field, by Brian Tracy. ___________________________ 280

65. Using Your Inner Guidance System, by Brian Tracy. __________________________________ 283

66. China Rising: The Return of the Dragon. ____________________________________________ 286

67. What Engineers Do, and How They Learn. __________________________________________ 291

68. The Mayan Civilization. _________________________________________________________ 296

69. The Earth a Dynamic Planet. _____________________________________________________ 304

70. The UN Celebrates Agriculture! __________________________________________________ 309

Texts from 71 to 80. ______________________________________________________ 313

71. What’s a GI Joe?. ______________________________________________________________ 314

72. How People Become Medical Doctors in the United States. ____________________________ 316

73. Beyond 'Law & Order': The US Jury System._________________________________________ 322

74. The Food and Drug Administration. _______________________________________________ 329

75. Stopping to Smell the Roses, and Lots More, at the Botanic Garden. _____________________ 335

76. A Visit to Two National Parks: Mount Rainier and Valley Forge. ________________________ 344

77. Meridian International Center. ___________________________________________________ 352

78. Satellite Telephones. ___________________________________________________________ 357




79. Reading in USA. _______________________________________________________________ 363

80. Scientists Say Climate Change Is Real and Human-Caused. _____________________________ 370

Texts from 81 to 90. ______________________________________________________ 376

81. Memorial Day Honors Soldiers Who Died for America. ________________________________ 377

82. The Power of Pausing, by Brian Tracy. _____________________________________________ 382

83. Organizing a Business to Meet Different Needs. _____________________________________ 385

84. Ready to Save Like There's No Tomorrow?. _________________________________________ 387

85. Choosing Between a College or a University. ________________________________________ 389

86. Five Labor Leaders Who Improved Conditions for American Workers. ___________________ 391

87. Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964: A Most Successful and Unusual Military Leader. __________ 397

88. Coast Guard Honors Partnership with VOA. _________________________________________ 403

89. Songs About American Cities. ____________________________________________________ 407

90. On the Great Lakes, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and More. _____________________ 415

Texts from 91 to 100. _____________________________________________________ 422

91. Hindi or English? The Politics of Language.__________________________________________ 423

92. Books by Four Authors Living in United States Carry Us Across Borders. __________________ 427

93. Tomato's Genetic Secrets Are Peeled Away. ________________________________________ 435

94. 911 Emergency Calls. ___________________________________________________________ 438

95. Nanotechnology: How the Science of the Very Small Is Getting Very Big. _________________ 442

96. Emotion Words. _______________________________________________________________ 447

97. Exploring the Nile in Egypt. ______________________________________________________ 450

98. Entrepreneurs Change the World. ________________________________________________ 460

99. The National Book Festival (USA) Celebrates Reading for Everyone. _____________________ 466

100. ‘The Journal Biological Psychology’ about Intelligence. _______________________________ 473

Invitation: Discover The Assortment for you of M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz of Texts of the VOA Special English Program. ______________________________________________________ 480

Know the Project: Books of English, from English 1 to 5, for all the CBTIS of the United Mexican States. _____________________________________________________________________ 481

Invitation to my Personal Pages. _______________________________________________ 482




Invitation: Discover The Assortment for you of M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz of Texts of the VOA Special English Program.

Visit my Personal Page. Get ahead. Go to: https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/





Know the Project: Books of English, from English 1 to 5, for all the CBTIS of the United Mexican States.

The Students can do the organization as they like it; but

absolutely, the Responses are written by hand, and the Works are

Presented by Groups with a Maximum of 5 persons.

«I formulated a project for the CBTIS (Technological Industrial and of Services Center of

Bachelor Degree) 107 of Tuxtepec, Oax., México consisting in giving to the Library of this Institution with five volumes of English language, of my authorship. A book for each semester, from the first English book to fifth English book (according to the plan of studies in this regard of the CBTIS). At no cost to the Institution, because this is a donation (in the staff, I solve my expenses of the project with income of my employment as a professor that I would be in this CBTIS).

One of the major advantages of this project is to solve the need of the student of spending in books of English language because the books will be at your complete disposal into the student community in the Library of the institution.

Afterward, in an immediate subsequent phase of this project is that among the student community of this CBTIS and all the CBTIS of the United Mexican States will have these 5 volumes of English language by means of a page of Google; read it, neither cost nor restriction to obtain them.

Well, as a last note, I must say that these books will have the format of 'workbook'. This, as an intelligent work with foundations and then their respective exercises to resolve, into a concurrent process».

M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz. Con título y cédula profesional 5632071 en la Maestría en Ciencias de la Computación. Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Veracruz, México.




Invitation to my Personal Pages.

Presidents Barack H. Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto.

«The habit of reading and the habit of trotting are true goods».

- M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.

Visit: https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/ Also: http://sites.google.com/site/enriqueruizdiaz/

Get Instruments for your Training.



http://sites.google.com/site/enriqueruizdiaz/

The first book of english readings of m.c. enrique ruiz díaz

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